Harry Potter and the Rise of The Ramblers
by AndrewK9000
Summary: Harry and his family attend Thanksgiving dinner with Max Kildare and his team of Meta Humans. Before sitting down to a feast to end all feasts, Harry and the others will hear the story of how The Ramblers came together.
1. Chapter 1: Arriving at Andrew's House

Greetings fellow readers and writers! This is my newest Harry Potter fic and I hope you love it! I'm sorry it took so long to get this one written, I've been way busy with my Kingdom Hearts series. Eventually I'll do a Kingdom Hearts/Harry Potter crossover, maybe after I get to see the second part of Deathly Hallows the movie. Here's hoping!

Okay, this takes place a few weeks after my last one, Harry Potter and the Harmony Project. Once again we see my original set of heroes, The Ramblers. I've used those characters before, but like in The Harmony Project, I've changed them somewhat to make them a bit more realistic.

This fic, while taking place in the Harry Potter 'verse, is a sort of a prequel, with the dialog switching back and forth between the present and past. This fic is the one in which I will finally tell in detail the origin of The Ramblers, as told by the Meta Humans themselves.

Anyway, I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters therein, all of which belongs to J.K. Rowling, long may she rule! I do on The Ramblers and all the other original characters in this story. Regardless, please don't sue me, I'm just trying to tell a good story.

**And now, without further delay, please enjoy…**

**Harry Potter and the Rise of the Ramblers**

**By AndrewK9000**

**Chapter 1: Arriving at Andrew's House**

_Thanksgiving Day, 2002_

It was a blustery afternoon on the fourth Thursday in November as Harry and his family walked down the streets of London towards an abandoned lot where the portkey he'd arranged for was waiting for them.

"Remind me why we're doing this?" Ron asked as he, Hermione, Harry and Ginny, found the lot and hurried towards an old boot, "going back to America after that mess on Halloween."

"Because we promised Andrew Carpenter we'd have supper at his house," said Hermione."

"He'd promised us a Thanksgiving feast to end all feasts," said Ginny, "I for one doubt that anything a Muggle can come up with can compare with what they had at Hogwarts, and certainly not anything Mum made."

"I won't argue with that," said Harry, "but the other Ramblers kept saying that Andrew is an outstanding cook, and we did promise we'd come."

"Well he'd better not disappoint us," said Ron, "we had to pull a lot of strings with Jessica to let us have today and tomorrow off."

"Just who's idea was it for the Americans to have a holiday in the middle of the week anyway?" Ginny asked, while Harry looked at his watch and nodded at everyone, signaling that it was time to touch the Portkey. They did and two seconds later they all felt the familiar hook behind the navel feeling.

The next thing they knew they had landed hard on a wide lawn, "I'll never get used to that," said Harry as they all picked themselves up.

"Me neither," said Hermione, "and Ginny, it was Franklin D. Roosevelt who made the holiday official."

"Is there anything you don't know?" Ron asked his wife.

"Depends," said Hermione as she, Harry, Ron and Ginny looked at the residence in which lawn they had fallen onto. It was three-story house made of wood and brick that had three fireplaces and large windows. A long driveway lead down a hill to a road that went off towards, what Harry and the others assumed, the city of Baltimore.

"Is this where Andrew lives?" Ginny asked.

Just then a man who looked 19 came running out the front door. He was of medium height with short brown hair and brown eyes behind glasses. He wore a green and white shirt with blue jeans and white shoes. A large digital watch was on his left wrist.

"You guys made it!" said Andrew Carpenter, Meta Human, explosives genius, mechanic guru, time-obsessed social outcast and overall nice guy, "awesome!"

"We said we'd come, Andrew," said Harry as everyone shook Andrew's hand.

"Yeah, but I kinda doubted that you'd come," said Andrew as he straightened his glasses and looked at his watch, "I know how busy you can be sometimes."

"Well not today," said Hermione, "and certainly not tomorrow."

"We're officially on holiday for the next three days," said Ginny, "all of us."

"Great," said a grinning Andrew, "it'll give us all a chance to eat down the leftovers. I always make way too much for everyone. Come in, I'm just getting started." He walked back towards the house, while Harry and the others followed.

"What time is supper?" Harry asked as he looked at his watch, which automatically adjusted for the time zone difference. Back in London in was 1:00 PM, while in Baltimore it was 8:00 AM, five hours early.

"Dinner will be served at 6:15 on the dot," said Andrew as they all reached the front door, "those that are late don't get pie with desert. Oh, wipe your shoes before you come in, and be so kind to leave your shoes in the foyer. I spent some time in Japan as a kid and the custom kinda grew on me." He wiped his shoes on the doormat and went inside.

Ron looked at Hermione in a confused manner. She and Harry shrugged at Ron, as if telling him to play along. They all wiped their shoes on the doormat before going in.

"I don't mind taking my shoes off," said Ginny as they went inside and took their shoes off. On one side of the foyer was a long set of coat hooks, while the other side had several racks for holding shoes. In each cubbyhole was a set of white slippers, which Harry and the others switched with their shoes.

"You didn't tell us you went to Japan," said Harry, "back when we met on Halloween."

"There's a lot about me you don't know," said Andrew as he pointed to a plastic bottle of alcohol and aloe-based hand cleaner, "Feel free to make use of the hand sanitizer, I like to keep my home as germ free as possible." He used some of the hand sanitizer and went into the next room, which was the living room.

"Don't make a fuss," said Hermione to Ron as she also used some of the hand sanitizer, "Andrew has more than his fair share of problems."

"I wasn't going to make a fuss," said Ron as he used the hand sanitizer, after which Harry and Ginny did the same.

Harry remembered that every member of The Ramblers had one mental handicap of some sort. Andrew's disability was Aspergers Syndrome, ADHD and OCD, all of which combined to make his childhood a living nightmare, one that he rose from and found himself as a master mechanic and explosive expert.

Harry also remembered that each Rambler had a nickname. Andrew actually had two; 'The Mechanic of Baltimore,' and 'Demolition Man.'

They followed Andrew into the large and ornately furnished living room. Several valuable-looking paintings adorned the walls. "This is all yours?" Ginny asked.

"Actually it belonged to my great-grandfather," said Andrew, "he made a fortune on the stock market in the late 50's and put a large part of the money into a trust fund for his children, my grandparents. They used part of the money to expand the house, and so did my parents, and I added a few things as well; especially a remodeled kitchen."

"I'm already impressed," said Harry, "but this is such a big house, and you live here by yourself. Aren't you lonely?"

"Sometimes," said Andrew, "it was meant to house a large family, but most of the time I like being a lone. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a recluse. My teammates and the rest of the guys at the BPRD are like a family to me, and they're always welcome to come and visit, but all in all, I value my privacy. This house isn't on a regularly used street and I get my mail via The Bureau, so it's mostly just me, myself and I."

He then looked at his watch again, "oh, I've got to check on the candied yams!" He stood up and hurried out of the room.

"He must really take his cooking seriously," said Harry as he and the others got up and followed Andrew to a very large and well equipped kitchen, filled with the latest and most efficient cooking appliances known in the Muggle world. There were three ovens and six stove burners, as well as four microwave ovens and a large countertop that had several blenders and mixing machines.

"Need any help?" Ginny asked.

"I'm alright," said Andrew as he opened one of the ovens. The enticing scent of candied yams filled the air of the kitchen. Andrew grabbed a set of oven mitts, put them on and took out a large dish that had candied yams topped with marshmallows. He smelled the dish, "needs another five minutes," and put it back into the oven.

"You can tell just by smelling?" Hermione asked.

"Pretty much," said Andrew modestly as he took out from under the countertop another casserole dish. He went to the pantry and took out a large can of string beans and several cans of Cream of Mushroom soup. He then grabbed a can opener out of one of the drawers of the countertop.

"You sure you don't want any help?" Ginny asked as she took out her wand, "I can easily open those."

"I'm sure you can," said Andrew as he opened the string beans, then the soup cans, "but I always do the cooking myself, all of it."

"All by yourself?" Harry asked.

"I just said that," remarked Andrew as he poured first the beans, then the soup into the casserole dish. He then went to the pantry and got a container of chopped friend onion and covered the top of the casserole with it. He then went to the second oven and placed the dish in it. He checked his watch, "just a few minutes for the candied yams."

Just then the doorbell rang, "that'll be Patricia and Travis," said Andrew as he hurried out of the kitchen. It wasn't long before Patricia Walker, a southern belle with short brown hair and dark blue eyes wearing a brown and orange dress and jacket, and Travis Bachman, a tall man with shot brown hair and light brown eyes, wearing a tan and white jacket, walked in.

Harry and the others met Travis and Patricia while investigating the deaths of several wizards and Muggles involved in a special Wizard/Muggle cooperation project. Like Andrew, Patricia and Travis worked for The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense.

Travis was a Green Beret before joining The Bureau. It was his special forces training that allowed him to survive combat with The Death Eaters. Patricia was something different. Like Andrew, Patricia was a Meta Human. Her ability lay in her voice; she could hold her breath for over two hours and could produce a sonic scream that could shatter a brick wall.

"Well look what we have here," said Patricia, her southern drawl displaying her roots, "How lovely to see you and your family again, Mr. Potter."

"I didn't know you were invited as well," said Harry as he and his family shook hands with Patricia and Travis.

"We've been coming to Andrew's Thanksgiving bashes since he started them back in 2000," said Travis.

"And they always bring something I didn't ask for," said Andrew in a slightly annoyed tone, "so, what is it this time?"

"Just a little variety," said Patricia in a slightly mischievous tone. Harry then noticed the large, aluminum foil wrapped item in Travis' hands.

"You didn't," said Andrew, "I've already got three different entree's all ready to go into the oven, including the turkey. They just need to be seasoned."

"Ah, but this time we brought a turducken," said Travis.

"A what?" Ron asked.

"That's where you take a de-boned chicken and put it inside a de-boned duck," said Patricia, "then you take the duck and put it inside a de-boned turkey; turducken."

"What an interesting concept," said Hermione.

"Well," said an intrigued Andrew, "I guess I can squeeze that into the oven and onto the table," he looked at Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny, "I hope you ate a light breakfast, and are prepared for a light lunch, 'cause dinner is going to blow your freaking minds to kingdom come and beyond, and that's saying something." He took the aluminum wrapped turducken from Travis and place it in the fridge.

"This happens every year," said Patricia to Harry in a hushed tone as Andrew went back to his work, "we bring a different dish and make it look like a challenge to him."

"He acts like he doesn't want to at first," said Travis, "but if there's one thing Andrew can't refuse is a cooking challenge."

"And here I thought I had Andrew figured out," said Harry.

"You're going to find that all The Ramblers are highly complicated," said Travis.

"Oh, I just remembered," said Hermione, "How's Katina?"

Harry had also nearly forgotten about the Meta-Human who saved his mind from the psychotic Scanner, Shannon Revek, just a few weeks ago. The maniac Meta Human was destroyed, but Katina Jones paid for her victory with her mind. The last time Harry saw her, Katina was being placed in a wheelchair and taken to a Bureau-funded hospital for mental recovery. The chances of Katina regaining her mind were slim, but definite.

"Actually she's much better," said Patricia, "she's responsive to audio and visual stimulation and is able to eat on her own and do a lot of other stuff. She can't talk yet, and there are times when she spends hours staring at a wall, but she's definitely improving."

"That's good," said Ron, "I mean, she had such a hard time growing up, she deserves a bit of luck."

"We all had a hard time growing up," said a male voice that came from a man in his early 20's with short brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a gray and white jacket over a blue shirt, blue jeans, black boots and had a gun belt around his waist. In the belt was a Colt .45 revolver.

"One of the days, Max Kildare," said Andrew as he started a balsamic reduction sauce on the stove, "I'm going to figure out how you keep getting into my house without breaking in."

"Trade secret," said Max Kildare. He then saw Harry and the others and shook their hands, "good to see you again, Harry Potter."

"Good to see you too, Max," said Harry. Max Kildare was the leader of The Ramblers and had a deadly seriousness about him when there was a mission going on. But today he looked like he was extremely happy.

Max's abilities lay in the physical sense. Aside from being a world-class gun slinger, he possessed an advanced healing factor that allowed him to recover from even mortal wounds within seconds. This healing factor also attributed to his incredible muscular strength; every time Max got hurt, his overall strength would increase. According to Max, he had been seriously wounded and nearly killed several times since joining the BPRD, all of which attributed to his nickname, 'The Indestructible Man.'" But to his enemies, Max had another nickname, one that meant that when he faced an enemy, nothing remained afterwards; 'Destructus Maximus.'

As it turned out, Harry and the others never learned what Max's handicap was, nor did they really want to know.

"Who else is coming?" Ginny asked, "and are they coming this early?"

"Everybody should be here by noon," said Andrew as he worked on kneading the dough for cornbread muffins, "or soon after. We'll definatley all be here before suppertime."

"We always come early," said Max, "Andrew always insists on doing the cooking himself, so we all just hang out and enjoy all the fun stuff in his house."

"I have just three rules about my house," said Andrew, "first; you break it, you replace it. Second; remove your shoes and keep your hands clean. Third; stay out of my bedroom. Everywhere else is okay, but my bedroom is my inner sanctum, so stay out!"

"Like I'd want to go into your room," said a female voice with a London accent. There at the doorway stood Jill Sparrow, a girl in her early 20's with long black hair and hazel eyes. She wore a red and orange dress.

Jill was naturally agile and a world-class fencer, making her a devastating sword master. Her true ability lay in her being able to sense danger and know how to avoid it. But her flaw lay in the fact that she was an adrenaline junkie who tended to get herself into dangerous situations while in the heat of battle. Jill actually relished in the danger, the worse the better in her mind. This seemingly suicidal behavior gave Jill the unfortunate but fitting nickname of 'Lady Death Wish.'

Andrew and Jill glared at each other, as if daring each other to say something to start a fight. But then Harry saw that both Jill and Andrew were pressing their fingertips to the palms of one hand. Harry and the others knew that Jill and Andrew detested each other, almost to the point of them trying to kill each other several times, ever since they met. The friction started over each other's quirks; Andrew hated the fact that Jill was reckless, while Jill was repulsed by Andrew's stress-relieving habit of picking his feet.

Harry then remembered that Rebecca Covington, an Auror in the American Magic Administration, and a Meta Human who has empathic visions of the past, hypnotized Jill and Andrew so they both had this new stress-relieving action, while also convincing them to be more civil to each other.

Jill and Andrew continued to glare at each other for a few seconds before Andrew spoke, "glad you could make it, you suicidal bitch."

"Glad to be here," said Jill, "you obsessive-compulsive dick. Still trying to make us all overweight?"

"At least I try to make our lives outside The Bureau interesting," said Andrew, "in a manner that isn't life-threatening."

"Surfing isn't that dangerous," said Jill.

"In a pig's eye it is!" said Andrew, "I honestly don't know why I even bother talking to you."

"Because you love me," teased Jill, and without further words, Jill went to the living room.

"Oh god, she still hates me," said a very depressed Andrew as he began to chop some vegetables with a very large kitchen knife, "every time I open my big, fat mouth I end up putting my foot in it. It's a miracle I don't have halitosis already."

"Don't do this to yourself, man," said Max, "she's just as troubled as you are. Okay, she's got different problems, but you both are on the same level. Trust me, she feels as bad about all of this as you do."

"She hates me," said Andrew as tears began to fall from his eyes, mostly due to the onions he was dicing.

"No she doesn't," said a man who just walked in. He was about 20 with short brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a red jacket over a gray shirt, with blue jeans and boots. He leaned on a walking stick and limped over, favoring his left leg.

"Daniel!" said Harry, "you're standing!"

"Well how else am I supposed to get in here?" Daniel Pulaski asked. Daniel was the computer expert for The Ramblers and had an innate ability to understand the workings of any software in the world just by touching the machine it was in. During the case on Halloween, Daniel was nearly killed by an oversized demon that bit off his left leg below the knee. Afterwards, Daniel had resigned himself to living his life out in a wheelchair, but now…

"Just got it fitted last week," said Daniel as he indicated his left leg, "my new prosthetic. Of course, I'm still stuck in office duty, and it'll be a long, long time before I'm given a field mission, but I'm okay with it."

"Well as long as you're happy," said Andrew as he got back to chopping vegetables. Clearly, now that his mind was occupied with his work, he was feeling better.

"I think we should go see how our friend is doing," said Patricia, "leave Andrew to his latest masterpiece."

"Everyone else will be here soon," said Travis, "we might as well meet them in the living room."

"Don't tell Andrew," said Max to Harry as they all went into the hallway, "but he gave me a spare key to the house years ago. He just forgot about it. I'm hoping he'll remember eventually."

"We all have spare keys," said Daniel, "but Andrew is a bit absentminded sometimes. He was a lot more back when we first started as a group, but he's gotten better."

"Wish I have," sobbed Jill as Harry and the others went into the living room. Jill was sitting on one of several overstuffed chairs and was dabbing a handkerchief at her eyes, "every time I talk to that wonderful man, I end up making a damn fool of myself!"

"You're not a fool," said Hermione, "you didn't try to kill him."

"Yeah," said Ron, "not like what you did on Halloween."

"I just didn't feel like it," said Jill, although Harry didn't need Legilimency to know that Jill was lying.

"It's just not fair," said Jill. She looked at Patricia, "why did the higher-ups in The Bureau put me in a team with a man I like and dislike at the same time?"

"Why did The Bureau put you all together?" Harry asked, "why did they do it if there was so much tension among teammates?"

"Now that is a tale to tell," said Patricia, "and since we'll all be here soon, you Wizards might as well know how The Ramblers came to be."

"And you'll hear it straight from the horses mouths," said Travis, "so to speak."

"You want us to tell our stories?" Max asked, "seriously?"

"You actually want us to tell them about how we met and saved the world?" Jill asked, "you want us to tell them everything?"

"Just the important parts at first," said Patricia, "but it's up to you if you want to go into more graphic detail."

"Is this an order?" Max asked.

"More like a request," said Travis, "Harry and his family want to know, so, if you don't mind, indulge them."

At that both Max and Jill sighed, "well, if they really want to know," said Max.

"Not if you're not comfortable with it," said Ginny, while Harry, Ron and Hermione nodded in agreement.

"It's not that we're uncomfortable," said Jill, "it's just that…"

"Just what?" Harry asked as that old demon of his, that thing that keeps the cat coming back even after dieing, curiosity, took hold of him.

"Well," said Max, "it's that…well…"

"It's a personal thing," said Daniel, "Gillian, myself and the rest of the team, as well as a lot of the other Meta Humans in the BPRD, we know the full story, but for us Ramblers, it's a deeply personal thing."

"You know that The Ramblers were formed as a result of the downfall of Voldemort," said Jill, "that the BPRD wanted an all Meta Human team to fight the forces of darkness for the sake of humanity as a whole."

"We know," said Hermione.

"And you also know that we were made a team originally to combat a massive demonic invasion that was using the Y2K situation as a front," said Max, "that the invasion was to happen at the stroke of midnight on New Years Day, 2000."

"Yes," said Harry.

"Well," continued Max, "what you don't know is that the original eight Ramblers; myself, Jill, Andrew, Leon Smyth-Falcon, Katina Jones, as well as Kayle Manfreedi, Saul Gordon and Calvin Johnson, we all went through something incredible before the final battle with the doomsday cult that tried to initiate the demon invasion."

"It was something that bound us together in ways that can barely be described by words," said Jill, "something that sill binds us even though three of the original eight are dead. And it binds the newest members of the team as well."

"We felt it as soon as we were officially Ramblers," said Daniel, "Gillian Anderson, Jeff Dambrisi and myself."

"If you're going to understand what this bond we have is all about," said Max, "you have to hear about it from the beginning, only then will you know the truth about us."

"We can only tell our own parts in the story," said Jill, "the others had their parts to play, they can tell their sides of the story when they get here, but Max and I can tell you how it began."

"Wait!" said Andrew as he hurried in with a large try full of the vegetables he had been cutting; carrots, green peppers, celery, cherry tomatoes, as well as low-fat crackers and several types of dip, "if you're going to let our friends in on the secret," he placed the tray down on the large table in the middle of the room, "we might as well do it right. No story should be told without snacks, and dinner is still a long way away."

"You sure you can stand to be away from the kitchen?" Jill asked as she dipped a cracker into some salsa, "something might burn."

"Everything's taken care of for the time being," said Andrew as he sat down, "the candied yams are alright, and I'm not due back in the kitchen for," he looked at his watch, "for at least an hour, so I'm good."

"In that case," said Max, "Harry, you and your family are about to hear a story that only a handful of people in the world know."

"We're all ears," said Harry, while Ron, Hermione and Ginny nodded in agreement.


	2. Chapter 2: Choosing the Team

**Chapter 2: Choosing the Team**

"There is one thing you need to know before Max and the others tell their story," said Travis, "The Bureau has always known of the potential of Meta Humans since its inception back in 1943."

"There has always been humans with extraordinary abilities," said Patricia, "throughout history there's been people that have been the stuff of legends, the kind of which heroes are told about.

"Hercules was one," said Max, "and all those other Greek heroes that mythology turned into demigods."

"And then there are the Meta Humans of the mind," said Andrew, "all those great thinkers of the ancient world; Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, just to name a few."

"And all the great artists and scientists that helped create the modern world," said Jill, "Da Vinci for one, he was definitely a Krelboyne."

"As was Isaac Newton," said Patricia, "Galileo, Copernicus, Machiavelli."

"And then there's the ones that made the 20th Century possible," said Andrew, "Einstein, Von Brown, Heisenberg, and especially Nikolai Tesla and Howard Hughes, those two are my personal heroes by the way. We owe so much to them, yet history chooses to focus on the negative aspects of them."

"You only like Tesla and Hughes because they were crazy like you," said Jill.

"Genius and insanity often go hand in hand," said Andrew stubbornly. He looked at Harry and the others, "Howard Hughes did so much for aviation, and made some very good movies as well, but nearly everyone thought he was crazy. So what if he had OCD? So what if he was deathly afraid of other people's germs? So what if he shut himself up in his private movie theater for several months? So what if he made the worlds largest wooden flying boat that was so big it only flew once?

"And then there was Nikolai Tesla, who did so much to advance the field of electronics. We wouldn't have radio or television without Tesla, and he invented alternating current, without which most electrical appliances wouldn't even exist as we know them. So what if he was obsessed with pigeons and the number 3? So what if he hated pearl earrings? So what if he spent the last years of his life shut up in a hotel room working on the plans for a particle beam weapon?

"My point is that just because some people are loaded with more than their fair share of problems," he looked at his watch, "doesn't mean they're not capable of greatness in their own manner."

"Speaking of which," said Jill, "any luck recreating Tesla's death ray yet?"

"I'd definitely want one of those for my birthday," said an eager Max.

"She's kidding, right?" a slightly Hermione asked, "I mean, the death ray is just an urban legend, right?"

"Oh it's real," said Andrew, "Tesla finished the schematics for what he called a Teleforce weapon before he died. He even had a working prototype, but it was accidentally destroyed when the government confiscated all his property when he died.

"But his schematics survived, and I have them at my workroom at The Bureau. You won't believe what I had to go through to get the plans away from the CIA."

"I think Harry and his friends have heard enough about death rays and such," said Travis.

"You're right," said Andrew as he looked at his watch again, "I've wasted enough time ranting. Anyway, we said that The Bureau knew about Meta Humans since the beginning, but back in 1943 there were only a handful of us alive, and with active powers."

"Those powers were mostly of the mind," said Jill, "psychics and big thinkers. But then they began setting off all those atomic bombs, and wouldn't you know it, all that radioactive fallout in the atmosphere began accelerating the evolution of mankind."

"Virgil and Aaron haven't proven that yet," said Max. He looked at Harry and the others, "the Baby Boomer generation gave birth to twice as many Meta Humans as there were born in the previous generation, and more and more are born each day. Virgil and Aaron think it's due to the increased background radiation levels caused by all the nuclear testing done in the late 40's to early 60's."

"Actually," said Patricia, "that theory was made by Aaron's grandfather back in 1970. The Spartan family has been involved with The Bureau since the beginning in one form or another."

"Can we get back to us?" Max asked, "Andrew's under enough stress as it is, we don't need to waste any more time."

"We've got time," said Andrew as he looked at his watch again, "anyway, "it was in August of 1998, three months after you destroyed Voldemort, Harry. The higher-ups in The Bureau met with several key congressmen and women who were in the know. They talked about how disastrous The Bureau's involvement had been concerning Voldemort and The Death Eaters."

"We told you that the BPRD tried to fight back during the first war against The Death Eaters," said Travis, "and again during the second war. Both times we sent dozens of highly trained operatives, all of them well experienced in contending with supernatural forces of dark natures. Nearly everyone sent during the first war was killed, and those that survived were either horribly maimed, insane or both. And the same thing happened in the second war."

"But you survived," said Ginny, "and Patricia and Warren."

"That's because I used my sonic scream to destroy a Death Eater," said Patricia, "and Warren completely pulverized another with his Kanabo. Travis survived because of his special forces training."

"I only became a Green Beret because of that John Wayne movie about Vietnam," said Travis, "that and the Rambo films. But yes, I survived."

"Before that, the bureaucracy of the government was uncomfortable with the idea of an all Meta Human team," said Max, "that they didn't think we could be trusted, and in a way, they were right."

"There's something about us Meta Humans with offensive powers," said Patricia, "those with enhanced strength, like Max, or psychic abilities, like Katina, or worse, Shannon, that made them feel aggressive towards each other."

"It used to be that whenever more than two of us were in a room at a time," said Max, "we'd feel the need to show off, and by showing off, we'd try to outdo each other, and by that I mean we'd try to kill each other."

"It was as if we were territorial creatures who couldn't stand to be in large groups," said a heavy New Orleans accent. There at the doorway was Leon Smyth-Falcon, otherwise known as Cajun Man. He was in his early 20's and had short black hair and dark gray eyes, wearing a orange and black shirt and pants. He then seemed to Disapperate and then reappear on the other side of the room, "like we had to fight," he then vanished and appeared next to Jill, "like it was instinctive."

Leon's ability lay in his nearly god-like speed that allowed him to run like the wind.

"But some of us got over it," said Patricia, "like me and Warren. With us, we were friends instantly, and still are."

"Speaking of which," said Leon, "Warren said he'd be here later, but Jeff, Gillian, Virgil and Aaron should be here in an hour or so, two at the latest."

"Then I'd better tell the rest of the preliminaries," said Andrew as he checked his watch, "before I have to get back to work. To make a long story short, Harry, the bureaucrats in the BPRD and government initially thought having an all Meta Human team was a bad idea, so the limited Meta Human agents to pairs, or just one Meta Human with a regular human."

"One of us, one of them," said Travis.

"Exactly," said Andrew, "but then the pencil pushers saw the reports on how Patricia and Warren annihilated the Death Eaters they faced, so they finally agreed to make an all Meta Human team."

"And just in time," said Daniel, "just after the green light was lit for the team, our Trackers and Scanners discovered the truth about Y2K and the impending demon invasion that a cult was trying to bring about."

"That was back in October of '98," said Max, "before that, while the plan for the team was approved, it wasn't really taken seriously, not until the threat of the end of the world was brought to the full attention of the higher ups."

"That's when things really got serious," said Leon, he then looked at Hermione and the others, "you're wondering how I know that we're telling our story."

"I texted everyone before coming in with the snacks," said Andrew as he displayed his cell phone, "cellular technology is so awesome."

"Anyway, we all texted Andrew back and said it was okay to tell the story," said Leon, "me, Jeff and Gillian. Aaron and Virgil also know, even though they're not officially part of the team. So, that's how things stood in October of '98; the world had less than 15 months to live, and the only hope to stop doomsday lay in a team that didn't exist yet."

"You already know I joined The Bureau in early 1999," said Andrew, "but some of us had been members before that."

"They found me in 1996," said Jill.

"April of 1995," said Leon.

"September of 1995," said Max, "with Katina joining in November of the same year, which makes me the most experienced Meta Human on the team. Leon may have had a few months on me, but i've been on more missions than him."

"Aren't you special," said Leon.

"The rest of us joined after the New Milenium," said Daniel, "Gillian officially in March of 2000, Jeff in June of the same year, and me in February in 2001. But the three of us didn't become Ramblers until a slot in the team opened."

"We'l get to that later," said Max, "we'll start with me. I had always been more than average when it came to physical activities. Back in school I loved sports; basketball, soccer, football, baseball, I had the potential to be a world-class sports star.

"But then shortly after my 13th birthday I had an accident that changed my life forever. While crossing a street with my friends I was hit by a drunk driver. I would have been killed instantly, had I been anyone else. But that accident that broke half the bones in my body woke up my healing power. The doctors said it was a miracle that I was still alive, and an even bigger miracle that a recovery that should have taken years happened within two months.

"I soon found out that I couldn't be seriously hurt. I admit that I got a little crazy and experimented. I jumped off of high buildings, stabbed myself, shot myself, I even allowed myself to be stung by bees and scorpions."

"I hate bees," said Patricia.

"We know," said Max, "anyway, I got a little too reckless in my recklessness and began attracting attention. Fortunately it was The Bureau who's eye I had caught and they brought me in before I caused a ruckus that would have ruined my life.

"It was determined by the Bureau doctors that my healing factor was making me nearly indestructible and increasing my physical strength. They said I had the potential to be the most powerful man in the world, if I had the right training and the right values to guide me.

"At first I was going to turn them down and take my chances. Of course, they had the compound Aaron's father had discovered, the one that would suppress my ability and make me forget I ever had special powers. But then I thought of all the good I could do as an indestructible man, all the lives I could save, and all the monsters and other dark creatures I could destroy. I said yes, but with two conditions.

"First, that I could devise my own training regime. Matrial arts was one of my passions but with my other sport activities I had never had the time to learn more than the basics. But now that my ability had woke up, I found that I had the time," he looked at Harry, "my power also makes it so that I need only a few hours of sleep a day, like two or three at the most. I once went seven days without even a catnap, and still felt ready to fight when the time came."

"Now that's a story," said Jill.

"It was," said Leon, while Andrew and Travis nodded in agreement.

"It'll wait," said Max, "anyway, my other condition was that for my primary weapon, well," he held up his Colt .45, "as you can guess, my favorite movies are Westerns. So, I began learning Mixed Martial Arts, this was when that sport was gaining popularity, and how to be a gun slinger."

"What is Mixed Martial Arts anyway?" Ginny asked.

"It's as if someone took Karate, Kung Fu, Judo and several other styles of fighting and put them all in a blender," said Andrew, "it's really interesting, but not my cup of tea."

"Your tea involves machines and blowing stuff up," teased Jill as she pressed her fingertips to her palm

"Where as yours involves trying to kill yourself," said Andrew as he pressed his fingertips to his palm, "just keep pressing my buttons, Jill, see what happens."

"It's my turn to talk," said a slightly annoyed Max, "anyway, I spent the next few years perfecting my fighting and gun slinging prowess and participating on various missions, nothing as world threatening as these days, but for my first missions, they were intense.

"But then the doomsday cult threatened to start that demon invasion and those in charge of The Bureau finally decided to put the all Meta Human team together, and their first choice as leader was me. I said I would do it, but only if I could name the team, which I did."

""Ramble On' is his favorite Led Zeppelin song," said Jill, "though I'm more of a fan of The Who."

"Well I like Pink Floyd," said Leon, "but none of their songs made good name for a team of super heroes."

"I like Black Sabbath," said Andrew as he looked at his watch, "and I thought the name 'Neon Knights' would have been great. Kayle and Saul thought so as well."

"Well we outvoted you three," said Jill as she pressed her fingertips to her palm, "and couldn't you have thought of a better name than that?"

"It was that or 'Scumdogs of the Universe," said Andrew.

"Don't you dare bring up Gwar!" snapped Jill, "I hate Gwar!"

"Well I like Gwar," said Andrew as he pressed his fingertips to his palm, "and I can talk about anything I want in my house. When we have a holiday dinner at your house, you can make the conversation rules."

"When you have a holiday dinner at your house, you can make the conversation rules," said Jill in a mocking tone.

"Stop it, both of you!" snapped Max, "just because we're off the clock, doesn't mean you can goad each other into a war. You want to kill each other, do it on your own damn time. Besides, it's still my turn to talk."

Andrew and Jill both sighed and nodded to Max. Yet Jill stuck her tongue out at Andrew, while he stuck his out at her.

"These people belong in straitjackets," Ron whispered to Hermione.

"They just have problems," Hermione whispered back.

"Anyway," said Max, "I got to pick the team name, so all that was needed was to pick the team."

"I was one of the first The Bureau singled out for the team," said Leon, "me and Katina. We both seemed to get along with Max kinda well, especially with her and Max," he grinned at the Meta Human in question, "ain't that right?"

At that Max blushed, "Katina and I, we…you know she had issues with men in general."

At that Harry and the others nodded. They remembered hearing that when Katina was younger she saw her best friend viciously assaulted and it affected her mind gravely.

"I was the first boy she actually trusted," said Max, "not at first by the way, but while we were training for the big mission, and I'll get to our training later, Katina got involved in a training accident that would have killed her, but I saved her and, well…she kinda started liking me after that. We dated for a while later, after we saved the world, but things never got serious.

"Anyway, after Katina and Leon, they brought in Calvin, Kayle, Saul, Jill and finally Andrew."

"They picked me because even though I had the least experience in The Bureau," said Andrew, "but I got the job done, I always do."

"And they picked me because, let's face it," said Jill as she ran her fingers through her hair in an enticing manner, "I'm irresistible."

"The whole process of choosing the team took months," said Max, "the higher-ups wanted the best for the job, and of course, the bureaucrats got in the way whenever they wanted. Despite the undeniable fact that the world was on the verge of ending, the pencil pushers and all those other idiots kept sticking their noses where they didn't belong."

"I offered to blow up one or two of the jerks," said Andrew, "just a letter bomb or two, just big enough to put them in the hospital."

"You didn't do that, right?" Hermione asked nervously, "right?"

"Warren threatened to break my hands if I ever suggested doing that again," said Andrew, "so that pretty much put an end to that idea of mine."

"Anyway," said Max, "the eight of us were together for the first time. I admit that I felt the irrational desire to try and kill my new friends. No, it was more like I wanted to assert dominance, to show these 'upstarts' and 'blowhards' that I was the strongest and the rightful leader, even though I already had that right."

"I also felt the need to fight," said Jill, "when I heard that the leader was already chosen, I was okay with it at first. But when I first met Max, this really strong and dark desire invaded my mind. I wanted to rip apart this 'egotistic' cowboy who only thinks he's a leader."

"I just wanted to get out of there before I exploded with anxiety," said Andrew.

"I just wanted to get out of there," said Leon, "I only joined The bureau to avoid going to juvenile prison," he then looked like had just said something he didn't want to in the first place, "I guess I didn't say that before."

"We all have our secrets," said Andrew. He looked at Harry and the others, "I already told you my origin, and you just heard Max's." he grinned at Jill, "now you and Leon get to tell yours."

"Insufferable prick," muttered Jill as she tapped her fingers. She sighed, "alright, I'll tell you my story. You know that I was a budding fencing champion. I could have been the best in the world, if my ability hadn't given me an unfair advantage over the competition.

"What you don't know is that before I joined The Bureau, I nearly joined another organization, one that dealt with the supernatural like the BPRD, but this one worked inb the private sector."

"There are other groups like The Bureau?" Harry asked.

"Quite a few actually," said Patricia, "the BPRD is funded by the major nations of the world and is therefore the largest, but there are some groups that are funded by corporations and by eccentric milti-billionares with more money than sense. These groups are mostly ghost-hunters and UFO chasers and aren't taken seriously, but some actually make progress in keeping the world safe."

"I was nearly recruited by one of these smaller groups," said Jill, "they wanted me as an early-warning detector. I can sense danger coming and then my ability tells me how to survive it. The thing is, the other guys wanted me to use my ability to tell when trouble is coming for the whole world, yet my power only works for me. I can tell when I'm about to be hit by a reckless driver or if I'm about to get shot or attacked in any way, but I can't sense when others are in danger.

"So I joined The Bureau, mostly because they promised to help me use my ability on active missions, and here I am, with the unfortunate nickname of Lady Deathwish. Believe me, I have no desire to die, I just like the thrill of the mission, the rush you get when you're an inch from death, yet there's always a way to win."

"I'm still waiting for the day you find yourself in a sticky situation where there is no way for you to get out of the mess," said Andrew, "then what are you going to do?"

"Easy," said Jill as she smiled, "you'll come and save me. Why, you ask? Because you love me."

"Whatever," said Andrew as he stubbornly crossed his arms.

"As for me," said Leon, "I grew up in The Big Easy. My family wasn't rich or poor, we were right in the middle. In order to make ends meat, both my parents had to work, so I was on my own a lot. Of course, when you're young and in New Orleans, you find all sorts of ways to get in trouble. I admit I did some shoplifting and a few other petty crimes, just for the thrill of it all.

"I was on my way to being a real criminal, especially when my ability emerged. I could outrun any cop on foot, and had things kept going they way they were, I could have outrun police cars and motorcycles.

"But then I ran into several BPRD operatives who were sent to find me. I was like a dream come true for them, since I'm actually the first Meta Human in the 20th Century to have super speed. Look it up in the archives if you want, but I'm the only one with my kind of speed.

"Anyway, the BPRD guys set a trap for me. I ran into a purposely set oil slick and fell into a net they had in place. I was then given a choice; either join The Bureau and use my power for good, or lose my power, have my memories adjusted and handed over to the cops and go to jail. As you can see by my being here, I made the right choice."

"Remind me to never let you get close enough to take anything of mine," said Ron.

"Oh I never picked anyone pocket," said Leon, "I just grabbed something in a store and ran, and I stopped stealing when I first came to The Bureau."

"We all chanced when we joined the BPRD," said Daniel, "even more so after joining the team."

"There's still the other three original eight," said Max, "and since they're dead they won't mind if we tell their stories."

"Kayle was a technological prodigy," said Jill, "she understood computers and the internet as if they were toys, while the rest of the world was just beginning to get used to having the internet. She could also manipulate her body's own electrical field to shoot lightning, but she discovered that power by accident after she joined the BPRD."

"She joined The Bureau purely as a technological Krelboyne," said Daniel, "as the tech support. When they were putting the team together, they tried to balance out the Meta Humans with offensive powers with those with purely mental abilities, and the idea of a 'techno-wizard' appealed to the higher-ups."

"Kayle was kinda like me," said Andrew, "a social outcast with nearly no friends, only her fields of interests as friends, although she didn't have the other problems I have. No, Kayle was just a nerd with way too much raw talent. But she soon found out that being a nerd could be cool."

"Her computer skills allowed her to break through any security in any computer system in the world," said Max, "and she could find any data you wished. She was a living search engine.

"Then when she was working out in the Bureau gym, the treadmill she was on shorted out and she absorbed a lot of electricity, then discharged it into another workout machine. One thing lead to another, leading Kayle to discover her offensive power. When the time for the eight of us to start training together, she was right there honing her powers, all of them."

"Next there was Saul Gordon," said Jill, "who was rather creepy, if I say so myself. His ability allowed him to phase through solid objects, and he did his very best to use that power to scare us every chance he got. You have no idea how annoying and terrifying it can be to have someone's head rise out from the table you're eating at."

"You should try going to a school full of ghosts," said Harry.

"And one really annoying poltergeist," said Ginny.

"Well Saul was a real jerk all around," said Leon, "especially when we were relaxing from training. Oh, he was all business when training, and he basically saved us all at one point, during the actual mission, but when we weren't training or on a mission, he did his best to drive us insane."

"I eventually put a stop to that crap," said Max, "I told him that if he tried to spook us one more time, we'd have a showdown. Like me, Saul had a Colt .45, but he was nowhere as good a shot as me. I told him that we'd only be shooting to maim, but I would be aiming for a part of him that he would dearly miss if I hit it with a bullet. He got the message and left us alone after that."

"And then there was Calvin Johnson," said Jill, "we never really found out much about him. He rarely said anything and kept mostly to himself when off the clock. Sure, he was pleasant enough when he did talk, and he always pulled his weight, sometimes others when training and on a mission, but whenever anyone asked about his personal life, he just smiled and said it wasn't much to brag about."

"We do know that he grew up in several foster families," said Andrew as he checked his watch, "which is probably why he never got around to being friends with us. When you're always moving from home to home, from family to family, you don't get many chances to get close to someone."

"But he was serious about his ability," said Max, "Calvin was like 'Mr. Fantastic' in The Fantastic 4. He could stretch his body like rubber. Imagine being able elongate his limbs and increase his size. Calvin could stretch into any shape imaginable, and if there was one thing that he enjoyed when off the clock, it was showing off his stretching prowess.

"And there you have it," said Travis, "an indestructible gun slinger, a sword mistress with a death wish, a man-hating Scanner, a kleptomaniac runner, a socially awkward techno-wizard, an obnoxious phaser, a quiet stretcher and a explosive mechanic. The original eight Ramblers."

"I still think it's a miracle that they didn't kill each other on the first day," said Patricia.

"How did you do it?" Harry asked, "how did you go from eight mismatched people to a team of heroes?"

"It wasn't easy," said Max, "and as Calvin was fond of saying, 'it wasn't much to brag about.'"

"I beg to differ," said Jill, "what we managed to do in only a few months, it definitely was worth bragging about!"

"For once I agree with you," said Andrew, "we definitely earned bragging rights."

"We did," said Leon, "and if Katina, Kayle, Saul and Calvin were here with us today, they'd agree as well."

"Well don't keep us in suspense, mate," said Ron, "how'd you do it?"

"We had to," said Max, "it wasn't as if we had a choice in the matter. We were basically the only ones who stood between humanity and extinction, so we had to pull ourselves together. But as to how we did it," he stood up, "it'll have to wait a bit, nature calls." He then walked towards the hallway.

"Stay out of my room!" Andrew called after him.

"I don't even want to know what's in your room!" Max said on his way to the bathroom.

"Nobody wants to know what's in your room," said Jill, "and don't you have sauces and other stuff to look after?"

"Oh crap!" said a nearly frantic Andrew as he shot up after looking at his watch, "I'll be right back!" he ran for the kitchen.

"They'll be a while," said Daniel as he helped himself to some of the vegetables and dip Andrew made earlier.

"Lucky us," said Ron as he tried some humus with a piece of celery.


	3. Chapter 3: Forging the Team

**Chapter 3: Forging the Team**

A short time later Max came back in from the bathroom, "okay, where was I?"

"You were talking about how The Ramblers came together as a team," said Harry.

"Oh, right," said Max, "well, we basically had no choice in the end. Time was running out for the world and…"

"You're jumping ahead, man," said Leon, "you can't tell our friends the end without telling how we got there."

"That's right," said Jill, "you should tell Harry and his family about our first day together."

"Oh good god!" said Andrew as he came back in, "not that. That was the worst day of that year for me."

"Oh then we've definitely have to tell it," said Jill as she grinned mischievously at Andrew.

"I'm curious as to how you all met," said Hermione.

"It really wasn't that serious a thing," said Max, "one day in August of '99 I came in to work and the higher-ups said that they were ready to bring the team together for the first time. I was told to wait in one of the meeting rooms of The Bureau.

"Katina and I were already there," said Leon, "and the two of us were cordial enough. But when Max came in, that's when things got interesting."

"The really interesting part happened when we were all together," said Jill, "I came in next, followed by Saul, Kayle, Calvin and Andrew."

"Half of us wanted to get out of there," said Andrew, "me included."

"And the other half was ready to start World War 3," said Max, "me included."

"But there was one thing keeping them from destroying each other," said Travis, "the threat of losing their powers. Max and the others were told beforehand that if there was any trouble, if anyone started a fight, then the room would be sealed off, flooded with sleeping gas and everyone would be injected with the compound that would inhibit their powers and make them forget."

"Naturally we were all used to our powers by then and didn't want to give them up," said Max, "so we all promised to, at least, try to behave, which we did, despite some close calls."

"We were briefed on the mission and told that if we succeeded, we'd be rewarded with something special," said Leon, "aside the fact that we would be saving the world and every living creature on it."

"That alone would have made things worth it for me," said Andrew, "I admit that the idea of being a real hero, even an unsung hero at that, was something I wanted."

"Deep inside all of us we wanted to be heroes," said Max, "I mean, we're like comic book heroes come to life and made more realistic. So we all managed to get past the irrational desire for each others deaths and tried to get to know us."

"After the initial briefing, we had some time to show each other what we could do," said Jill, "that's when Saul began freaking us out with his ability."

"Kayle amazed us all by showing us a way to get free cable and cell phone service for life," said Andrew, "legally that is."

"And Calvin actually made Katina smile," said Max, "everyone had a good laugh at 'The Amazing Rubberband Man.' Calvin may have been quiet and antisocial, but when he was in the mood, he was the life of the party."

"I was the only one who felt like he didn't fit in," said Leon, "out of the others, I was the one who used his ability for evil, well, for petty crimes that is, and I really felt bad about it."

"What about Jill and Andrew?" Ginny asked, "when did their row start?"

"We were friendly enough at first," said Jill as she and Andrew did their unconscious stress-relieving exorcise, "and we could have been friends, if he hadn't spilled that apple turnover all over me!"

"Don't you bring up the apple turnover!" snapped Andrew, "I told you a million times it wasn't my fault!"

"Then how come I distinctly remember you walking towards me with a plate full of apple turnover, and then dumping it on my head?" Jill asked as both she and Andrew stood up.

"Oh for the love of god!" exclaimed Travis, "haven't you two idiots figured it out by now? It was Saul who tripped Andrew and made him spill that turnover on Jill!"

"You two have been feuding over an accident caused by a man who, wile a great warrior for the forces of good, was an outright jerk when off the clock," said Patricia, "now, don't you feel rather foolish for fighting over a simple prank?"

"It wasn't simple to me," said Andrew as he and Jill still glared at each other.

"So they only hate each other because their teammate pulled a prank on them?" Ron asked, "if that's so, why aren't they making up?"

"They should be getting over it," said Hermione, "now that the truth is out."

"I don't think it's that easy," said Daniel, "Jill and Andrew have been hating each other for years, and hate isn't something that can easily be let go."

"Ain't that the truth," said Virgil Blake, a man in his late teens with short blond hair, hazel eyes and wearing a orange and white jacket with jeans, walked in. Virgil was quite possibly the most brilliant scientific mind on the planet. Having mastered several languages by the time he was five and multiple fields of science before he was 13, and graduated from college before he was old enough to drive, Virgil was undeniably, what he called, a Mentat, a living computer.

Hermione smiled at Virgil, while Ron frowned at him. It wasn't a secret that Virgil and Hermione knew each other, as friends, and only as pen pals, before Hermione learned she was a witch, and the fact of this prior friendship seemed to irk Ron somewhat.

Just then another man walked in. Aaron Spartan, short brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a blue and white jacket, was another Meta Human with a brilliant mind. His mental abilities lay in the medical field. At age 20, Aaron was already a surgeon and pehysician, and was the lead medical expert for the BPRD.

During the crisis on Halloween, a series of events lead to the discovery that Ginny was unable to have children, due to an undiagnosed injury she sustained during the Battle of Hogwarts. Just when Harry and Ginny were about to sink into the depths of despair, Aaron suggested that they put their futures in nanotechnology. The concepts of tiny machines entering the body and repairing damage revived the hopes of the young couple, and so they agreed to use the Muggle technology once it was perfected, which was promised to be so witnin a few years.

"Where are things at?" Aaron asked after saying hello to everyone in the room, "I got Andrew's text about the story."

"We seem to be skiping back in forth in time," said Patricia, "between the day the original eight first met, and the day Saul tipped Andrew and make him spill that apple turnover on Jill."

"So it _was _an accident," said Aaron, "and a horribly caused accident at that. If Saul were still alive, I'd kick his rotten ass all the way to Antarctica!"

"I'd kick his ass all the way to the moon and beyond, the jerk," said Virgil angrily, "you know, he tried to make my life a living hell. Nearly every time I was nearby he'd use his ability to scare me. I must have lost ten years off my life after all the times he freaked me out. Forgive me for speaking ill of the dead, but I'm glad Saul is that, dead."

"He was a jerk," said Leon, "I guess what we went through never truly changed his nature, unlike the rest of us."

"Speak for yourself," said Jill as she and Andrew relaxed, "you're still a fast talking playboy."

"What can I say?" Leon asked, "I like the ladies, and the ladies like me."

"If I could get back to the story," said Max, "we had pretty much gotten used to being around each other after our first day together, and after the first week of training, we were all, for the most part, friends. Sure, we argued frequently and often took sparing matches a bit too far. I was the only one who could seriously hurt the others in a one-on-one pratice session, while the others were capable of ganging up on me and knocking me out. But as time went on our aggressions against each other began to wear down and eventually disappeared."

"We still fight sometimes," said Leon, "every now and then one of us would piss off another too much and we'd have to take things to the sparing area in the gym. We try not to cause too much colateral damage with our fights, the repair bills can be a bit high."

"It was around September of '99 that the apple turnover incident happened," said Max, "you know that Jill and Andrew have had hostilities since then."

"It doesn't matter that this started over a prank," said Andrew as he and Jill continued to glare at each other, "too many bad words have been since then."

"We have unfinished business," said Jill, "business that takes presidence over any relationship healing."

"Oh, you mean that," said Leon.

"What's that?" Ron asked.

"We'll get to it in a bit," said Max, "anyway, training. The higher-ups designed a schedule that would help us get in shape, as a team, and to refine our abilities. Aside from physical workouts and team-building exorcises, we each had our own training methods."

"Our overall training consisted of cardio and muscular workouts that left us halfway to exhaustion," said Leon, "as for the team-building part, ever heard of trust exorcises and modivation retreets?"

"Somewhat," said Harry.

"Well we had to go through all these seminars that focused on the importance of working together as one," said Jill, "while also emphasizing that our individual prowess were important both alone and as a group. We were to be a force of individuals and a united force, all in one. That halfway exhausted our minds."

"The rest of the training finished the exhaustion," said Andrew, "Max trained to bring out his full potential as a martial artist and a gun slinger, while also improving his healing factor."

"I nearly killed myself a few times in order to make myself stronger," said Max, "my healing ability was really stressed to the limit."

"Is there a limit to your power?" Harry asked.

"I honestly don't know," said Max in a thoughtfun manner, "I guess if my head is cut off, or if I were thrown into a vat of acid, or thrown into an erupting volcano then yes, I would die."

"As far as we can tell," said Aaron, "if the majority of Max's body is intact, say, 51%, then if he's wounded in another part of his body, even if he's shot in the head or stabbed in the heart, the rest of the body can heal the wound. But if every cell in his body were destroyed within a short time, like he said about the volcano and acid, then yes, he would definately die. I'd rather not find out about the decapitation."

"Neither do I," said Max, "I did like the rest of my training. I love martial arts and guns, and I got to train with the best in both fields. If I'm not the best, then I will be someday."

"My training helped me improve my swordsmanship," said Jill, "as well as my agility, speed and reaction times. I also improved my power. It used to be that I only had two or three seconds warning before danger came. Now I have nearly ten seconds in order to figure out what to do to survive."

"9.832 seconds to be exact," said Virgil.

"My training focused on my speed," said Leon, "I'm truly the fastest man in the world. If I tried, I could run around the world in a matter of days, assuming I only stop to eat, sleep and bathe."

"And I learned how to identify any mechanical problem just by touching the machine," said Andrew, "I used to be I had to take a machine apart in order to find the exact problem. But now I just need to touch it with one finger in order to learn about the fault and how to fix it. I also learned how to handle any explosive without fear of killing myself."

"Lucky us," muttered Jill.

"As for the others," said Patricia, trying to stop another fight between Jill and Andrew, "Kayle learned how to shoot lightning, Saul how to phase through denser objects and Calvin to change his body shape into more elaborate forms and stretch further without losing strength."

"And Katina learned not to be so closed minded around boys," said Max, "as well as developing her mental powers to the point where she reached the level of Scanner."

"But even our improving powers and developing friendships weren't enough," said Leon, "we still wasn't a team."

"Our differences kept clashing with our ability to work together," said Andrew, "especially in close quarters." He then checked his watch, "excuse me," he got up, "I have to start the broccoli yum-yum."

"What is broccoli yum-yum?" Ron asked.

"It's a broccoli dish with cheese crackers on top," said Aaron, "it's delicious, trust me."

"Everything Andrew makes is delicious," said Max, "we wouldn't have survived as a team if it weren't for Andrew's cooking."

"It's his one redeeming factor," said Jill, but Harry and the others knew that Jill liked Andrew for more than being an outstanding cook.

Just then the doorbell rang. "Someone get that!" Andrew shouted from the kitchen, "my hands are busy!"

Harry then saw Max, Jill, Leon, Patricia, Travis, Aaron, Virgil and Daniel looking at each other in a suspicious and mischievous manner.

Max then said quickly, "One-two-three not it!"

"Not it!" said both Leon and Jill.

"Not it!" shouted both Patricia and Travis.

"Not it!" shouted Aaron and Virgil.

"Not…damn!" said Daniel. He struggled to stand up with his new foot and limped towards the hallway.

"What the bloody hell was that about?" Ron asked.

"It's sort of a game we play," said Leon, "whenever we're over at someone's house for a party and the host is busy when the doorbell rings, we play to see who gets to answer the door."

"Last one to say 'not it' is it," said Jill.

Daniel hobbled back in with two people, "I answered the door this time, so next time I'm immune."

"Fair enough," said Max.

Harry was surprised to see that the two newcomers were his Auror counterparts in the AMA, John Baxter and Rebecca Covington. John, a wizard of 26 years with brown hair and dark blue eyes and wearing green and brown robes, was in charge of investigating the deaths of the wizards and Muggles killed by Shannon Revek during the Halloween crisis. John was both serious and good natured, which served him well since during one battle against rogue Meta Humans, dark wizards, muggle mind slaves and a few demons, it was discovered that Umbridge had joined forces with Shannon.

Having captured Umbridge, it was determined that she would be handed over to the AMA, and eventually extradited back to Great Brittan, but she pulled out a hidden wand and tried to curse both Harry and Ginny. They deflected the curse, but by sheer chance it hit John in the face, bruning out one of his eyes.

Umbridge was death with, and after the destruction of Shannon, Harry recovered the magical eye of Mad-Eye Moody and gave it to John, and it fit him well.

Rebecca Covington, a witch of the same years as John, had shoulder-length blond hair and hazel eyes and wearing yellow and blue robes, was in the same Auror training group as John and would have been his partner, if not for an incident that occurred during the last weeks of their training.

The emergence of a Meta Human ability in Rebecca caused her to have a mental breakdown. The incident caused her career as an Auror to be severely hindered. She was just as qualified as John, but her breakdown landed her the role of a glorified pencil pusher. But it was her eagerness to prove herself to her fellow Aurors, as well as to the heads of the AMA and the American Auror office, that put Rebecca on the case.

As it turned out, Rebecca is the first witch to also be a Meta Human, and her ability is empathy, or rather, she could sense emotions experienced during the past. She could walk into a crime scene and tell you what both the victim and suspect were feeling just before, during and after the crime itself.

Rebecca admitted that she didn't want to be a Meta Human, since it was the general practice at the time in The Bureau for all Meta Humans to be given the choice of working for the BPRD or have their memories and powers suppressed so they couldn't hurt themselves or anyone else.

This fact was strongly felt by Katina, who felt that all Meta Humans, reguardless of backgrounds, should work with The Bureau. A battle between wizards and Meta Humans over Rebecca's future was almost inevitable, but then a compromise was struck; Rebecca would continue her duties as a witch and an Auror, and would spent some time on a regular basis at The Bureau, honing her abilities and helping out on various BPRD cases whenever possible.

Rebecca played a major role in solving the case on Halloween. Not only did she provide Harry and the others with improved Omniocculars that could see through solid walls, but she also made sure that Umbridge never hurt anyone again. Using her Meta Human power, Rebecca forced the unscrupulous and unremorseful Umbridge to relive every torment and agony she inflicted on all the innocents she hurt, but from the viewpoint of the victim, and Umbridge was going to stay that way until she died. This version of justice satisfied everyone, especially Harry and Ginny.

"I didn't know you guys were invited," said a surprised Rebecca as she and John said hello to Harry and the others, then to Max and the other BPRD people.

"I invited them!" Andrew called from the kitchen, "my social networking skills are definitely improving."

"I hope Andrew's cooking is as legendary as it's cracked up to be," said John, "I'm starving already."

"I'll be in with more snacks soon!" said Andrew, "I've got four kinds of cheese and six types of crackers just waiting to be arranged on a platter."

"Blimey," said Ron, "just how good is his hearing?"

"Good enough to pick out the difference between species of crickets," said Max.

"Music happens to be a secret passion of Andrew," said Daniel, "he pretends that we don't know, but we do know that he likes all sorts of music, ranging from 60's psychedelic to adult contemporary."

"Anyone who says that Phil Collins sucks will answer to me!" said Andrew as he brought in a large platter full of cheese and crackers.

"Outstanding," said John as he helped himself, "just so I'll know, what time is supper again?"

"6:15 on the dot," said Andrew, "those late don't get desert!"

"We've been talking about how we, The Ramblers, got together as a group," said Jill.

"That's awesome," said a smiling Rebecca, "there's a lot of Aurors in the AMA who want to know that story."

"Well they're going to be disappointed if you want to tell them," said Leon, "we've been telling the tail for a while now, and have no intention of staring over again."

"Oh, that's alright," said Rebecca, "I've got it." She closed her eyes and her faced adopted a concentrating look. She remained that way for several seconds before opening her eyes again, "there, now I know what you all talked about." she suddenly laughed, then looked at Jill and Andrew, "you've been fighting because your teammate set you up for a prank."

"How did you find that out?" Jill asked in a shocked tone, while Andrew's face turned white.

"It's her ability," said a stunned Hermione, "somehow, Rebecca can see into the past, not just emotions experienced before, but now the actual past."

"Retro-cognition," said a smiling Rebecca, "my empathy was only just the first step, and of course, being a witch helps," she pulled out her wand and pointed it at her forehead, "like most experienced magic users, I can pull out thoughts and memories for storage, but I learned how to copy memories," she took her want away from her forehead, dragging a silvery transparent mass with it.

Rebecca looked at John, who nodded. She then touched her wand to his forehead, and the mass of memories went into his head. John blinked several times and shook his head about for a bit, "the one downside is dealing with the rush of memories," he said, "it's like trying to swallow something too big, or something like that."

"There's something about this that just freaks me out," said an uncomfortable Andrew, "not just the fact that now you two know everything that we talked about until now, but, what you just did, sharing memories like that."

"Telepathy, we're used to," said Leon, "but…is that what memories actually look like? Or is that just with you wizards?"

"I honestly don't know," said Rebecca.

"Well I think it's wonderful that you've developed your abity," said Hermione, "and that you've adapted it to work with your magic."

"Well, it was either that or give up everything," said Rebecca, "and that wasn't happening. I find that being a Meta Human as well as a witch is just like being different from other people around you. You can either embrace that difference and make it your own, or you can run away from it and be miserable. I choose to make it my own."

"Good for you," said Patricia, "it's the same with all Meta Humans, you either love it or hate it, and if Katina were here, she'd embrace you like a sister."

"She's no sister of mine," said a slightly annoyed Rebecca, "just because I've accepted this new power of mine, doesn't mean I have to love it. I almost had my life taken away from me, just because I'm different."

"You think you're suffering?" Jill asked in an insulted tone, "I could have been an Olympic champion, and Max could have been a multi-sport superstar."

"We all had our dreams," said Max, "Kayle wanted to build her own software company rivaling Microsoft, Calvin wanted a quiet job that would allow him the time to eventually have a family, and Saul wanted to be a television producer. And Leon here," he looked at the Meta Human in question, "what was your dream? Something about opening your own nightclub."

"One of my best friends in New Orleans," said Leon, "his dad owned a nightclub that had one of the biggest Mardi Gras parties every year. I wanted, still want, to have a nightclub that will throw an even bigger party."

"I never really had a dream," said Andrew, "I was too busy trying to survive one day at a time in order to worry about the future."

"Well I'm living my dream right now," said John, "ever since I heard about them I wanted to be an Auror, and now they say I have what it takes to one day be the top Auror in America."

"Didn't Kingsley say that you were a sure canidiate to be top Auror back home?" Hermione said to Harry. This caused him to spit out the water he had been drinking.

"So we'll soon be counterparts in the years to come," said John.

"I think you'd both be great Top Aurors," said Ginny, she then looked at Max, "and maybe you'd be a great higher-up for The Bureau."

"Hell no," said Max, "me, a pencil-pushing administrator? Are you kidding? The day they stick me behind a desk is the day I can't even load my own gun, and that will be the day I throw myself into an erupting volcano. I'm a Rambler till the day I die, whenever that day may come. Now, where was I in the story?"

"You were talking about how your differences kept you and the others from coming together as a team," said Hermione.

"Right," said Max, "things kept getting worse as we kept training. No matter how hard we tried, we just couldn't work together without getting into one argument or another. We knew what was at stake, but things just wouldn't work out."

"Maybe it was the fact that time was running out," said Jill, "that we were being pressed to act as a team. If we had a few months more, or just one month, we might have been able to pull our acts together and be more harmonious as a group and put our differences aside."

"But there wasn't time," said Andrew has he looked at his watch, "New Years Eve was fast approaching and with it the end of the world."

"It seemed hopeless that we would be ready in time," said Leon, "especially after the fiasco that happened around Veterans Day."

"The Trackers for the BPRD weren't as sophisticated back then as they are now," said Travis, "but they were talented in their abilities enough to get a general idea as to where the base for the doomsday cult was."

"We had less than sixty days until the demon invasion," said Max, "so the higher-ups decided to act on the information the Trackers found. We Ramblers, along with several other BPRD agents as support, were to attack the cult at their base and shut them down before they moved to a different location."

"You keep saying that these cultists were Muggles," said Hermione, "and that they knew about demons and wanted to end the world. But why?"

"And how did they know about demons?" Ron asked.

"Now that's a different story," said Jill, "but it fits in with our own."

"If those idiots didn't try to mess with things they shouldn't have," said Leon, "then The Ramblers may not have been created, not as the team is now."

"So in a way," said Max, "the cultists helped make us who we are today."

"Ironic, isn't it?" Virgil asked.

"You won't get any arguments from me," said Harry.


	4. Chapter 4: The Heatherson Cult

**Chapter 4: The Heatherson Cult**

"In order to understand the cult that tried to destroy the world," said Patricia, "you need to understand that people, I.E. us mortals or Muggles, are for the most part, stupid and are easy to manipulate."

"Tell a good enough lie and anyone will believe it," said Travis, "part of the crest of the BPRD has the word 'truth' in it, but part of our organization's mission is to lie to the world and make sure that the lie keeps going. Whenever someone gets too curious about a mysterious event, we have to ensure that person remains silent. We won't kill the truth-seeker, but we'll make him or her forget."

"And whenever someone does manage to get proof of the supernatural to the media," said Max, "if they get pictures of a Sasquatch or any other kind of monster or demon, we've made it so that the only ones who will take that evidence seriously are tabloids and various nutcases."

"And when the real media begins asking questions," said Jill, "we have 'experts' come forward and say that the evidence is a hoax, thereby perpetuating the lie."

"But you have a good reason to lie," said Hermione, "the same reason why wizards had to go into hiding and stay in hiding to this day. Muggles are afraid of what they don't understand, and fear has a nasty habit of becoming hate."

"Too true," said Leon, "if the rest of the mortals in the world were to learn that Meta Humans are real, there'd be hate riots all over the place. We'd have a race war, Meta Humans vs. Normals, before we knew it."

"But not all Muggles are intolerant," said Harry, "not like my 'other family,' the Dursleys," he looked at Travis, "you and the other Muggles in the BPRD actually like Max and the other Ramblers."

"True," said Travis, "we've accepted Max and others Meta Humans as people, and for the most part we're all friends, but the rest of the world isn't that tolerant."

"Besides," said Jill, "The Bureau has spent almost 60 years keeping a lie going. If you were to ask a random person on the street if they believe in the supernatural, the most they would say would be the occasional ghost haunting or a minor psychic phenomenon such as a fortune teller that isn't a charlatan."

"Or a random event that can't be explained logically," said Virgil, "such as a plane crash where one or two passengers survive without so much as a scratch, or any other miraculous event."

"But sometimes miracles can be interpreted wrong," said Max, "which brings us back to the doomsday cult. Back in the early 30's, as the world was pulling itself through The Great Depression, some farmers out in The Dust Bowl were caught in a massive dust storm. I don't know how much you know about that part of American history, but I have relatives who lived through The Dust Bowl and survived several dust storms.

"The stories I heard about those dust storms gave me nightmares. The idea of nowhere to go as you're slowly choking to death by the earth itself terrified me as a child. But there were some who lived through one of the worst dust storms of the time and came through without any ill effects, save insanity."

"We're not sure on all the details," said Aaron, "but a community of farmers in Kansas were attending church on a Sunday when a dust storm engulfed their town. In those days a dust storm could come out of nowhere with little if any warning. Anyway, here's where fact and fiction are hard to distinguish. There these farmers, whole families and their children, were trapped in this one building, praying for deliverance, yet no hope seemed to come as the storm dragged on for hours, then days.

"Three days and nights the farmers prayed. With no food and little water the farmers waited for the end, be it salvation or death. But apparently their prayers were answered as the storm ended, and this part isn't completely verified, a path had been dug through the dust from the church to a source of water and food that was there waiting for them.

"All the farmers were convinced that it was a sign from God, but one farmer, one Jebediah Heatherson, he wasn't a Christian, and he believed that his prayers were responsible for the apparent miracle."

"Heatherson was a pagan of the worst kind," said Virgil, "he worshiped a dark pantheon of demonic gods that survived the rise of Christianity and hundreds of years of persecution during the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and The Salem Witch Trials. Heatherson was a devote believer in these demon gods and was convinced that his gods had ended the dust storm and dug the path to the food and water.

"He saw this as a sign to spread the word of his dark gods. In the days that followed, Heatherson discovered that he was very good at persuading those around him to believe as he believed and within a month after the storm, nearly everyone who was trapped in the church with Heatherson was converted to his dark religion. They cast aside all symbols of Christianity in the church and rebuilt it as a temple to their dark gods. Those who didn't convert either ran for it before it was too late, or wound up as sacrifices to the demons."

"These weren't Satanists," said Travis, "that religion, which is legal thanks to The First Amendment, does not practice human sacrifice, despite the endless urban legends you hear about it. But Heatherson and his cultists did.

"But when you go around murdering your neighbors in order to appease demon gods, other people tend to notice, and just in time for the newly created FBI to take action. The cult was investigated and declared a menance to the public, even more dangerous than John Dillinger, Public Enemy no 1, and other members of organized crime, even worse than communists, and in those days, that's saying something. The Kansas National Guard was called in to shut down the cult, while the FBI did their best to make sure that no one else learned what was going on."

"The cult was attacked during one of their dark rituals," said Max, "this was a massive sacrifice in which twelve virgins were to be murdered. The Guard got there in time to save the last five and the majority of the cultists were either killed in a shootout or arrested. But Heatherson and his inner cabal escaped."

"Of course," said Ron in sarcastic manner.

"The FBI searched for months to find Heatherson and his followers," said Travis, "but to no avail. Eventually the case was declared cold and was put in their files, which was declassified to The Bureau in its inception. Which was a good thing because the Heatherson Cult reemerged in 1949. This was when The Bureau was preoccupied with hunting down and capturing the rogue Nazi scientists who were responsible for the creation of The BPRD in the first place.

"But then people began disappearing in small towns in the southwest states; Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and in small communities in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas. There were even rumors of disappearances in northern Mexico.

"These disappearances were, at first, young adults running away from their homes. But then more and more young men and women, especially virgins, began vanishing, only to turn up dead and mutilated. It took The Bureau a while to dig through all the 'unsolved' cases the FBI had sent them, but the case with the Heatherson Cult was dug up and the disappearances and murders were all linked with the cult."

"The one factor that identified the cult as the culprits were their sigil," said Virgil, "a three-eyed minotaur with the Latin words for 'darkness within, darkness without' inscribed inside a circle that had seven stars. Each murder victim had a sacrifical brand burned onto the back of their necks, which is how The Bureau knew who was responsible."

"But surely the cultists must have known that their crest would identify them as killers," said Ginny, "unless…"

"Unless they wanted the authorities to know they were the murderers," said Harry, "just like The Death Earters and The Dark Mark."

"It's likely that Voldemort was inspired by this very case," said Aaron, "The FBI knew about the cultists, and it's possible that old moldy shorts had his eyes with them as well."

"The Bureau tried to find the cultists," said Max, "but remember that this was at the height of The Great Occult War. Nearly every operative was either hunting rogue Nazi scientists or slaying whatever abomination the fascists had created to terrorize the world."

"It wasn't until 1951," said Leon, "when the daughter of a politician was murdered by the cultists, that The Bureau began to throw its weight onto the case. Even more so when the cultists got their hand on a copy of The Necronomicon."

"The what?" Ron asked.

"Necronomicon," said Virgil, "literally 'book of the dead.' Translated from sumerian scripts by The Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred, in the early 8th Century."

"It's the worst mistake humanity has ever made," said Max in a grim tone, "that book, in all it's incarnations and trasnlations, contains rituals for communicating and summoning demons the likes of which would drive normal men mad just by looking at them. You won't believe how many times I've asked the Bureau higher-ups to destroy the few remaining copies."

"Just how many copies of this dangerous book exist?" Hermione asked.

"Less than four remain that we're sure of," said Rebecca, "one is in a secure vault in Gringots, the second is in an underwater vault off the coast of Egypt, the third is in the Most Dangerous Stuff section of The Bureau, again in an secure vault, and a partial copy is locked up in The Library of Congress. There may be other copies still out there, but those haven't been confirmed yet."

"How'd you know all of that?" Max asked in an accusing tone, "I only know of the ones in London, at The Bureau and the partial one, and only that the third whole one is still out there."

"I only knew about the one in the BPRD vaults and the other one in Washington," said Daniel.

"I spent years as a pencil pusher for the AMA," said Rebecca, "most upper-level administrators tend to let their tongues lose when around workers that they usually ignore."

"She's right," said John, "even I only knew about the copy at Gringots, until Rebecca told me about the others."

"Are you sure that all the remaining copies are accounted for?" JIll asked, "because I know we wound up destroying two and recovering the one that's now in our vault."

"No one can be sure if all the copies are destroyed or secure," said Max, "there's something about that book, something terrible. Even when it's destroyed, and you think it's gone for good, another copy turns up somewhere else. That's why I've tried to convince the higher-ups that the ones we know about should be destroyed, and that it should be a priority directive that all copies found in the future are to be destroyed upon discovery."

"I'm pretty sure that all the ones that are known are accounted for," said Rebecca, "personally I also believe that they all should be destroyed. There are some things that are best left alone by wizards and Muggles alike. Messing around with demons, especially ones like The Old Ones, it should never have been written about anyway."

"What does this book have to do with a doomsday cult?" Ginny asked.

"Nearly everything," said Max, "again, this is only speculative, but a copy of The Necronomicon was in Heatherson's posession during the time he was trapped in the dust storm, or at least it was in his home. Aparently it had been in his family for generations, maybe almost a thousand years, and he was the latest caretaker."

"The Necronomicon has been translated from it's original Sumerian text to Arabic and then to Latin, creating more copies in the process," said Virgil, "true, some of the power of the words in the book was lost in translation, and again so when Spanish translations began to turn up in the 1500's, and again when German, French, Italian, English, even Russian copies were made.

"Fortunately for the world, most of these copies were destroyed in the many wars, revolutions and other turmoil's that kept plaguing Europe and Asia. Even the copies that found their way to The New World couldn't avoid the fires of change as new nations rose with the passing of time. We're almost certain that the translated copies were all destroyed, especially the ones in modern languages."

"The ones that still exist are the only four that were written in the language it was originally written," said Rebecca, "Sumerian, and there aren't that many people in the world who can read Sumerian. Those four were, we think, made in the hand of The Mad Arab as he dirrectly copied them from origional Sumerian texts, and therefore are the most powerful."

"But Heatherson could read Sumerian," said Aaron, "or, he either learned to after the dust storm. Or maybe, according to cultists who were captured alive and questioned, he learned it form the dark gods after his 'revelation.'"

"During the attempt to shut the cult down in 1951," said Max, "the BPRD managed to capture several cultists. Most had hidden poisons on them and killed themselves before they could be interrogated, but two were kept alive long enough for them to reveal their leaders' mission."

"Jebediah Heatherson was as mad as a hatter alright," said Jill, "he was convinced that the world belonged to the darkness and his demon gods were the rightful lords of creation. He believed that the demons ruled over the world long before man evolved from apes, and that some force, that we still don't know about, banished the demons to some limbo dimension. Heatherson saw it as his mission to free the demons from limbo and bring about a new age of darkness."

"That's why his followers kept kidnapping and sacrificing virgins," said Leon, "they believed that the purity of a virgin would feed the demons and give them the strength to escape their prison. That bit of information spurred The Bureau into finally catching up with the bastards in their headquarters in, ironically as it was, Death Valley."

"They had an underground temple where they performed their unholy rites," said Patricia, "and nobody ever bothered to look, until the truth was driven out of one of the captive cultists."

"You ever hear the rumor that various government agencies experimented with LSD as a truth drug?" Andrew asked Harry.

"I don't think I've heard that one," said Harry.

"I have," said Hermione, "I think it was the CIA who used LSD."

"Well our truth drugs weren't as mind bending," said Travis, "this was before we had psychics sophisticated enough to read peoples minds deep enough to get to the deeply guarded secrets the cultists had, but our scientists had the means."

"My grandfather," said Aaron, "who helped build The Bureau, he discovered a truth serum that had no ill aftereffects."

"We got the cultists location and their motivation," said Patricia, "and The Bureau moved in for the kill."

"Hundreds of cultists were there for their regular mass sacrifice of innocents," said Travis, "this time we managed to get there before the sacrifices began and save nearly all of the intended victims, but the cultists had guns of their own and a handful of the kidnapped men and women were killed in the shootout.

"Again, nearly every cultist was either killed or captured, but like before, Heatherson and his inner circle escaped, and once again the search for the madmen turned up nothing. The case was declared cold again after more than two years of fruitless searching.

"Decades passed until the cult turned up again," said Max, "this was in the late 90's. The world already knew the threat of the Y2K bug and were working on fixing the problems. But what the world didn't know was that the problem was originally caused by Heatherson and his cultists."

"I'm sorry, you've lost me there," said Hermione, "how did a demon cult cause the Millennium Virus crisis?"

"What exactly was the Y2K problem?" Ginny asked.

"I don't know that much about computers," said Harry, "but when the muggles were first building them, they made a mistake in order to make them work better, or that's what I think it was."

"That's putting such a catastrophic event in the simplest terms," said Virgil, "computers use binary data as information. When computers were getting more and more sophisticated in the late 50's and early 60's, it was agreed among the software designers of the time that instead of four digits to record a year, they would only use the last two, so a file with the year 1961 would only read 61.

"The problem was that when the year 2000 came round, computers would read the year as 00. This would cause the computer to think, as computers do in their own manner, that the year was 1900, which would cause the computer to error in ways that would corrupt the data within them and possibly destroy that data.

"This had the potential for massive chaos on a global scale. Imagine, airplanes falling out of the sky because their guidance system had failed. Banks and stock trading computers losing data that represented billions in various currencies. Communication systems would break down, military and police would be unable to coordinate, and a million other technological factors that hold modern society together would fall apart.

"I think I can put my head around it," said Ron, "like, if magic were to suddenly not work at all."

"Wizard society would be crippled," said Hermione in a grave tone, "murdered even."

"Now you understand how serious a problem this was," said Daniel, "all because a bunch of programmers wanted to save some space on their primitive data storage units. Sure, the machines back then were state of the art, but compared to what we have now, and what's going to be made in the next few years, what they had back then was like comparing a wheelbarrow to a Humvee."

"Or like putting a Firebolt 3 next to a Nimbus 2001," said Harry, "there's just no comparison."

"I'm going to agree with you on that," said David, who clearly had no idea about the differences between racing brooms.

"So, how did the doomsday cult create the Y2K problem?" Hermione asked.

"Heatherson did his homework during the late 50's," said Virgil, "despite his fanatical devotion to his demon gods, he knew the potential of computers. He had some of his followers influence the programmers, I.e. coercing them from the shadows, into creating the errors that would eventually cause enough chaos for the demon gods to exist on this world."

"What does that mean?" Ron asked.

"The dark gods that the cult worshiped thrive on chaos," said Max, "wars, plagues, resource shortages, anything that would disrupt the order of civilization, even collapse it, are like nectar and ambrosia to the demon gods; the greater the chaos, the greater their power becomes."

"The demons also thrived on human suffering that is caused by chaos," said Jill, "the greater the suffering, be it physical pain or emotional anguish, the greater the pleasure for the vile things."

"And the idea of world-wide chaos and suffering was irresistible to Heatherson and his cabal. They had set in motion events that would cause the worst catastrophe in living memory, and the cult would use that catastrophe to weaken the fabric of reality enough to free the demons from limbo, thereby creating hell on earth."

"The Bureau didn't become aware of this threat until 1998," said Patricia, "of course, the seriousness of the Millennium Bug had been known for some time and mortal scientists around the world were working against the clock to rectify the situation before the deadline of 11:59:59 on December 31, 1999."

"Most computers easily accepted the new software for recording dates," said Virgil, "but what the mortal world didn't know was that the cult had anticipated the Millennium Bug Patch programs. Heatherson had several scientists under his control and had them create a new virus that was uploaded to every major computer system in the world without anyone knowing it. This virus would activate seconds before the clocks in each time zone struck midnight, thereby causing all the repair software to delete and the old programs to reactivate, and when the fateful hour would strike, chaos would envelope the world one time zone at a time, and there would be nothing that mortal man could do since the virus program was undetectable, well, nearly undetectable.

"I've been with The Bureau since the mid 90's, and while many other scientists got the credit, the original software for fixing the Millennium Bug came from my inspiration. Of course, this being The Bureau, it was natural for us to suspect that there would be those who wanted to sabotage the fixed programs, so I created a program of my own to seek out any attempts of such sabotage.

"I'll admit that I was surprised and more than a little proud that my program found the enemy virus program. While Max and the team was getting ready to shut down the cult, I was working around the clock developing a counter virus that would stop the cults' virus before it did any harm."

"But even if we saved every computer in the world from the virus," said Andrew as he looked at his watch, "the cult still had their own means of bringing the demon gods into the world. They had a Necronomicon, and it gave them the instructions for a blood ritual that would bring their gods out of limbo, even without the added chaos energies created by the Y2K bug."

"So when their location was discovered in mid November," said Max, "it was reasonable for the higher-ups to want the cult shut down as soon as possible."

"But we still weren't ready," said Leon, "and our unready situation nearly ended us as a team."


	5. Chapter 5: Darkest Hour

**Chapter 5: Darkest Hour**

"The cult was located in the Dakota Badlands," said Max, "right in the middle of nowhere. Our intelligence had reasoned that this was only a temporary headquarters for the cult, that they would change locations for the final sacrificial ritual on New Years Eve."

"In short it was either now or never for us," said Andrew as he stood up, "I got to start the rest of dinner now. Max, Jill, Leon, you'd better not make the rest of my part of the story look bad, or I'll make sure that your portions of tonight's dinner are dipped in sardine juice." With that he walked out of the room.

"He'll do it," said Leon, "this one time I made fun of his obsessions with time, and every time I ordered lunch at The Bureau cafeteria he put garlic in everything I had. That's why I always make my own lunch from home."

"Okay, I won't make him look like the jerk he is," said an irate Jill as her fingers tapped her palms.

"As I said," said Max, "we knew where the Heatherson cult was and we knew it was only a matter of time before they changed locations. There the eight of us, unready but willing to give it our all. Of course, we had plenty of backup, but that only made us feel somewhat better about it."

"The Bureau had sixty armed and trained mortal agents," said Leon, "as well as half a dozen experienced Meta Humans for support." His face then adopted a grave look, "But even all that firepower and special power wasn't enough for what happened."

"The higher-ups seriously underestimated the resourcefulness of the enemy," said Max, "we thought there would only be a few hundred knife-wielding maniacs wearing nothing but black ceremonial robes; easy pickings for three score special operations-trained men and women armed with machine guns and grenades, I specifically insisted that extra grenades be brought."

"Plus six experienced Meta Humans," said Patricia, "myself and Warren included. And we had our new heroes, so it was assumed that we would have the advantage, even if the cultists did have guns of their own."

"We moved in on the cult's makeshift tabernacle of horrors," said Max, "and almost immediately things began to go wrong. We had underestimated the numbers that the cultists had gathered. We thought there would be only a few hundred, but by this time Heatherson had thousands in that one location alone, and god knows how many more scattered around the world."

"We also underestimated the firepower the cultists had," said Jill, "we had assult rifles and shot guns, the enemy had the same, only a lot more of them."

"And they had rituals that could quickly summon demons to do their bidding," said Leon, "a demon can be measured on a letter scale; 'E' is the least dangerous of fell creatures and can easily be dispatched with a simple banishing ritual or just one bullet. 'A' class demons require highly complex rituals to send them back to the hellish dimension they come from, or enough firepower to destroy several tanks, modern tanks that is."

"And the demon gods," said Hermione in a cautious tone, "what level are they on?"

"S," said Max, "but we only had to deal with a dozen 'D' class and four 'C' class demons, but even these were almost more than we, in our uncooperative state, could handle."

"The only good things going for The Bureau that night was the fact that we had night vision goggles," said Travis, "and that the cultists were terrible shooters. Hundreds of the enemy were killed by friendly fire, but enough of their bullets found their marks. We lost twelve agents that night and fifteen more were hospitalized."

"Us Meta Humans managed to get through that night," said Patricia, "not without taking our share of preverbal punches. I myself still carry the scar of a bullet that hit me in the leg."

"I nearly had my arms ripped out," said Max, "for some reason, most of the demons wanted to kill me more than the others."

"Saul nearly had his head ripped off," said Leon, "or rather his scalp, and I was one second too slow away from being riddled with bullets."

"Things would have been worse," said Travis, "had Max not gotten us those extra grenades."

"And I had my micro bombs," said Andrew from the kitchen, "I took out several of the bastards that night."

"I'll admit it," said Jill in a reluctant tone, "Andrew's mini-bombs helped save us. But in the eyes of those in charge of The Bureau, the mission was a complete failure. Heatherson and his inner cabal had once again evaded justice, and they took the Necronomicon with them."

"I don't understand," said Ginny, "these are Muggles we're talking about. But if they've been trying to destroy the world since the mid 1930's, then they must be over 80 years old, 90 even."

"We've reason to believe that Heatherson was in his early 40's when he started on his path of darkness," said Patricia, "making him over 100 years old when we tried to shut the cult down, and some of his inner cabal were a lot older."

"I'm sure you're aware, Harry," said Max, "that those who tread the path of evil are often gifted with unnaturally long lives."

"Voldemort tried to make himself immortal through murder," said Harry in a grim tone, "I'm guessing that Heatherson and his cult did something similar."

"Sacrificing thousands of virgins over the course of nearly seventy years didn't go unrewarded," said Virgil, "even with demons, the concept of equivalent exchange exists. They received their blood and innocence tribute, they would then bestow 'favors' on their mortal acolytes, one such favor would be extended life and youth."

"I actually saw Heatherson that night," said Jill, "and for a man living in his second century, he looked rather well."

"He looked even younger than he was when he started the cult," said Max, "like 30, 35 at the most. But regardless of how the cultists survived the decades, we failed to capture Heatherson and his cabal. It didn't matter if we killed or captured those lower echelons in the cult. So long as Heatherson, his inner circle, and the Necronomicon, remained at large, then the world was still doomed to die."

"To say that the higher-ups weren't happy that we failed would be a drastic understatement," said Jill.

"They were more than unhappy," said Leon, "they threatened to cancle the mission, or rather, our involvement in it. There were still plenty of Bureau administrators and Congressmen who saw The Ramblers as a bad idea, and our failure justified their beliefs."

"There was still time to find the enemy again before New Years Eve," said Aaron, "but those in charge didn't want another fiasco like what happened on Veterans Day, so they decided to go with Plan B, or rather, Plan M"

"M for Missile," said Max, "the plan called for entrapment. The Bureau would seek out Heatherson and the cult and try to negotiate with them. But the communication attempt would only last long enough to locate Heatherson and his cabal, and especially the Necronomicon.

"Once found, a Tomahawk missile would deliver a tactile nuclear warhead to the site of the enemy and wipe them out in one blow."

"Wait a second," said a shocked John, "are you telling me that you were going to explode a nuclear bomb on American soil?"

"Just a small warhead," said Travis, "with a yield of less than a kiloton; small enough to minimize the colateral damage to civilians and property nerarby, as well as produce minimal radioactive fallout, but large enough to get the job done."

"Even so," said a stunned Hermione, "even if it was a small yield explosion, it still would be noticed from miles around. How on earth would you have explained it?"

"The plan was to blame it on home-grown terrorists," said Max, "like a white-supremacist group or Neo Nazis, or even foreign terrorists. It would be explained as a terrorist plot gone wrong, that they were building their own bomb to use on New York City or Washington D.C., and that they did something wrong and the bomb went off."

"All nuclear warheads in the arsenals of the world governments that have nukes are designed to only go off when you want them to," said Virgil, "that's one sure thing about national nukes. But a nuclear bomb built by terrorists most likely wouldn't have the proper safety systems designed to keep it from going off by accident."

"It would also be made sure that all evidence pointed to home grown terrorists," said Travis, "while at the same time planting evidence that the nuclear material used in the bomb came from waste from a nuclear reactor that was stolen by said terrorists, thereby creating the need for tighter security in America. Even before 9/11 the threat of terrorism existed at that high a level."

"And you claim to have the word Truth as part of your creed," said a highly irate Hermione, while Ron, Ginny and Harry nodded in agreement. Harry was especially shocked to hear that his friends were capable of such a crime, however justified it was.

"Well we didn't do that," said Max, "did any of you hear of a terrorist plot gone wrong in the weeks before the year 2000?"

"Uh, no," said Harry.

"Well then, we didn't do it," said Max, "we Ramblers convinced the higher-ups to give us another chance to take down the cult. We still were having cooperation problems, but we at least knew where our weaknesses were and were ready to get over them."

"But we were nearly out of time," said Jill, "and without any idea of where the cultists had set up for their final sacrifice. Even the Trackers couldn't find them."

"Heatherson was no fool, I'll admit," said Leon, "he outwitted every civilian law enforcement agency for over seventy years, and he soon figured out that Meta Human psychics were tracking him. And as unlikely as it seemed, the Necronomicon had a ritual for hiding from psychics."

"Unbelievable!" said Ginny in an exasperated tone, "you'd think you blokes would have some luck."

"We were way overdue for some good lucky by then," said Jill, "and just when it seemed that no luck was to be found, it found us."

"The eight of us decided to take a night off to clear our heads," said Max, "to relax and just be friends for a while, for it looked like it would have been our last chance to do so."

"We were having dinner at the best restaurant in D.C.," said Leon, "with The Bureau paying the bill of course."

"The food was decent," said Andrew from the kitchen, "but the atmosphere and decor of the restaurant left much to be desired."

"That's because you have no sense of culture!" said Jill while performing her stress-reducing movement with her hand.

"Both of you shut up!" snapped Max, "I'm still talking here!"

"Yes, sir," said both Jill and Andrew, though Harry saw that Jill looked like she wanted to keep arguing, and he guessed that Andrew also wanted the same.

"Anyway," said Max, "we were having dinner on The Bureau's dime. Even though we were supposed to be relaxing, we were anything but. Our defeat had stirred up all the negative feelings we had worked so hard to get rid of."

"We were still blaming each other for what went wrong," said Leon, "either I was too slow getting to the right place in time, or one of us missed taking a shot that would have finished Heatherson, or someone didn't grab The Necronomicon, and there were a million other excuses that threatened to split the group apart for good.

"The point is that we as individuals didn't want to accept the fact that we as a group had failed, and we knew, subconsciously at least, that even though that we had been given another chance to succeed, we were still doomed to failure unless we did something to get our heads out of our arses."

"That something happened right after we finished eating," said Jill, "we all wanted to get the evening over with, even though this was our night off. So we finished dinner, paid with The Bureau's credit card, and left the restaurant.

"On our way back to The Bureau, we were in a stretch limo, I looked out the window and saw a mugging in process; five thugs armed with knives against a helpless little old lady and her 13 year old granddaughter.

"Katina saw the crime as well and her first instinct was that this was a gang rape. She burst out of the car and tackled one of the muggers, without using her powers and disregarding the fact that the creeps were armed with buck knives."

"I ran out of the limo next and attacked two of the thugs," said Max, "Leon and Jill got the other two."

"But then several more gang bangers appeared," said Leon, "and before we knew it, we had a street brawl on our hands. There must have been twenty of the creeps, and not a single cop in sight."

"All the thugs had knives and various blunt objects," said Jill, "while we had left our weapons back at The Bureau. But the creeps didn't take into account that we all had extensive training in hand to hand combat, especially Max."

"I must have broken more hooligan bones that night than I'd like to count," said Max, "At least six of the creeps wound up permanently crippled and most of the rest had to be hospitalized."

"That was when Saul finally spoke his mind," said Leon, "not on how terrible a team we were, but on how futile the whole mission was. Saul said that if our mission was to protect the world, and in it people like those muggers, then what was the point? Why protect the good if the evil survives as well?"

"That was a valid point," said Jill, "and I almost agreed with him. But then Kayle asked what we should do about it? Saul said that we shouldn't even be involved with The Bureau, that we're nothing but freaks and failures to them, and that we should cut and run while we had the chance."

"He wanted to abandon the mission, The Bureau and the rest of the human race," said Max, "he wanted to forget the fact that the world was about to end and take his chances, even if it mean facing a chaotic world full of demons and god knew what else would happen in the following months.

"At that point I wanted to kill Saul. Not because of the Meta Human aggression, but because he was a coward and an idiot."

"I also wanted to punish Saul," said Leon, while Jill nodded in agreement, "he had no right to suggest that we run away, burry our heads in the sand and wait for the coming crisis to blow over."

"We told him that if we didn't stop the demon invasion," said Max, "that if Virgil couldn't permanently cure the Y2K bug, then there would be no place in the world to hide, that if the chaos didn't kill us, then the demons would.

"Of course, being the stubborn bastard he was, Saul argued that if anyone could survive the coming chaos, it would be Meta Humans, and as terrible as that fact was, he might have been right."

"Meta Humans are possibly the next step in human evolution," said Aaron, "that's what we believe. But even so, to just give up trying, that's no excuse for Saul's words."

"That's when I had my rare moments of true grit," said Andrew as he walked back in and sat down, "I told Saul, and the others, that we can't give up, not even for a second. We had to keep trying all the way, even in the face of hopelessness. We shouldn't compromise, shouldn't run away, shouldn't surender to fate. I told Saul that even though we may all end up dead and the world would end, I would still try."

"And as crazy as it seemed," said Jill, "I agreed with Andrew."

"We have our moments of clarity," said Andrew.

"I stood with Andrew on that," said Leon, "as did Max, Calvin, Kaylee, Jill and Katina. And even though he still thought we should take our chances elsewhere, Saul agreed to try. You know, that was the first time we all agreed on anything."

"But it wasn't the last," said Max, "but just as we were all agreeing to try, we remembered that two mortals were there; the old woman and her granddaughter that we saved from the muggers."

"As it turned out, the two of them knew that we were different," said Leon, "and they knew because the old woman was a fortune teller in a clan of gypsies; real, honest to god gypsies."

"I didn't know there were gypsies in America," said Hermione.

"Well there are," said Max, "anyway, these two gypsies, the old woman and her granddaughter, they were separated from others of their clan who were in the city that day. We offered them a ride back to their camp and they accepted.

"On the way to their camp across the river in Virginia, the old woman kept thanking us for helping her and her granddaughter when we had no reason to do so. Being gypsies, they had come to expect nothing from total strangers."

"We kept saying that we had to help," said Jill, "especially Katina. She insisted that there was no way she'd just walk away from two helpless women being mugged and possibly killed. We also told the old woman that it was our job to help those in need, and we meant it. For the first time since the eight of us started together, we were actually acting like a team. Even Saul."

"We reached the gypsy camp," said Max, "where the old woman and her granddaughter told the clan elders what had happened. The elders tried to offer us a reward for helping. We tried to tell them that no reward was necessary, except for Saul, who was expecting gold, or at least, a new girlfriend."

"Saul had an overactive libido," Patricia, "any chance to flirt with a young, single woman, he'd take it. I'm sure that the thought of a night with a pretty gypsy girl was almost irresistible to him."

"But instead of gold or carnal pleasures," said Jill, "the clan elders offered us something far more valuable."

"They blessed the eight of us," said Max, "they said that because we acted as a team to save those in need, then our newfound unity and harmony as a team would never be broken, that nothing, not our differences as individuals, not our personal problems, not even death, would break our new bond."

"The blessing also extended to others who joined the team," said Daniel, "when Jeff, Gillian and I joined The Ramblers, as soon as we were officially on the team, we felt this…connection, with Max and the others, a connection that really can't be described."

"It's like our hearts were linked," said Jill, "we were still ourselves; we still had our differences and our problems, but for some reason, those differences didn't seem to matter as much, and we were able to move past those differences and truly be a team."

"A bunch of gypsies did all of that?" Ron asked.

"Gypsies have their own magic, I guess," said Harry, "like House Elves and Goblins."

"Something like that," said Max, "anyway, the blessing in truth only amplified what was already there. We had to make the connection as a group ourselves. As you can see by Jill and Andrew, even though some of us don't like each other, even though some of us try to kill each other every now and then, we're still bound together in a way that goes beyond petty loathing."

"Our row isn't petty!" said Jill, "it's bloody serious!"

"It is petty!" Leon insisted, "you and Andrew have so much in common, and though you won't admit to each other, you do like each other. You just need to get past these stupid differences, like we got past all our differences."

He looked at Harry, "even though some of us died, and one of us is recovering from a crippling psychic wound, we're still together as teammates and friends, and nothing has ever broken our comradeship, not without consequences that is."

"What consequences?" Harry asked.

"The blessing the gypsy elders gave us was more than a means to help maintain our friendship," said Max, "it was also protection from outside influences. The elders knew that someday there would be those who would try to break us apart; enemies on the side of evil, as well as those with good intentions."

"We did face a few evil men who tried to destroy us by turning us against each other," said Jill, "to try and break our bond by various dark means; by exploiting our differences, by planting hypnotic suggestions that would make us attack each other, or just by planting false evidence that said that one of us wronged another.

"I'm happy to say that none of those dark means worked. We would somehow see the truth of the lies told against us, would ignore the hypnotic suggestions and somehow work out the exploited differences."

"And there were those in power who though we were a threat to their power," said Leon, "there are several men and women in congress who know about The Bureau, and are entitled to know about Meta Humans. These congresspersons, whom shall remain nameless, saw us Meta Humans as threats to the world, to humanity, and most selfishly, to their positions in power. They tired all sorts of legal yet dirty means to get The Bureau to stop having Meta Human operatives, especially us Ramblers.

"Let's just say that these congresspersons wound up losing all credibility in one form of a scandal or another, eventually losing their next election."

"The blessing carried a curse against all those who would try to break us apart," said Max, "the gypsy elders said that those who tried to manipulate us into turning us against each other would eventually be captured by the law and punished accordingly. That those in positions of authority who sought to harm us would lose their authority. And as for those who sought to turn us to the dark side, be they human, Meta Human, wizard, demon or other, they would suffer the most. They would be cursed forever in this world and the next."

"What kind of curse?" Ginny asked cautiously.

"The worst kind," said Jill, "this one time a madman in charge of a multi-national corporation saw us as an asset to be used. He tried various means to get us to work for him, and by work for him, he meant as assassins and thieves. He soon began suffering the worst of bad luck; his company failed and he went completely bankrupt. Then he was indicted for embezzlement and inside trading, serious crimes in any nation.

"He was sent to prison, where he was found hanging by his bed sheets one day. We found the gypsy clan who blessed us and the elders told us what would happen to those who tried to turn us to the dark side. At first we thought that the maniac deserved what he got, but then we learned that the curse not only made him suffer in this life, but also in the next one."

"His soul was denied entrance to the afterlife," said Leon, "the maniac couldn't go to either heaven or hell. He'll wander the world as a spirit that nobody could see or hear, forever. That made us a bit uncomfortable, but we all agreed that the maniac did deserve it."

"Now that I think about it," said Andrew as he looked at his watch, "that gypsy blessing was our first real experience with real magic, aside what the cultists used."

"We had a few other run ins with other forms of magic," said Jill, "but meeting you wizards was something else entirely."

Andrew looked at his watch again, "almost time to put the turkey in," he got up and went to the kitchen.

Harry looked at his own watch and was surprised that it was past noon already.

"Time sure does fly when you're having fun," said Leon as he also checked his watch.

"We've been talking for a while now," said Jill as she stood up and stretched, "and there is still so much more to tell."

"I think a lunch break is needed," said Max as he and the others also stood up.

"Already ahead of you, my friend," said Andrew as he brought in a tray full of sandwiches, "since we're going to be gorging ourselves on turkey tonight, and I got the biggest turkey I could find, 18lbs, I figured you'd all like roast beef or ham for lunch."

"Much obliged," said Leon.

"And for desert," said Andrew as he ducked out of the room for a minute, then came back in with another tray full of… "Chocolate Frogs."

"No bloody way!" said Ron.

"I didn't know Muggles could get those," said an impressed Hermione.

"There's a little something called The Internet," said John as everyone helped themselves to sandwiches, "that we wizards in America find a welcome edition to our lives, especially when it comes to shopping."

"You can find just about anything you can imagine on The Internet," said Rebecca, "and it's getting bigger all the time."

"You'd think that we'd have the foreknowledge to try and control this ever-expanding system of information and communication," said Virgil, "once a piece of information goes out into the internet, there's no taking it back. If one person has that information, he or she can copy it and send it to someone else. This can be potentially dangerous if you allow personal information lose, like your social security number or your credit card numbers.

"But that's what privacy software is for, and plain common sense. Then again, there tends to be a depressingly short amount of that in the world."

"People can be stupid sometimes," said Travis, "but there's always hope for a better tomorrow."

"We wouldn't be risking our lives on a regular basis if there wasn't hope," said Max.

"I won't argue with that," said Harry, "so, you were now able to function as a team without getting into constant arguments. What happened then?"

"We already convinced The Bureau to give us another chance," said Max, "and we were soon going to get it. And this time it was all or nothing, for time was almost up, for us Ramblers, for The Bureau, for the whole world."


	6. Chapter 6: Our Finest Moment and Onwards

**Chapter 6: Our Finest Moment and Onwards**

"It took the Trackers almost to the very last second to find where the Heatherson Cult had their final sacrifice set up," said Max, "early on the morning of December 31st. We had less than twenty hours to get to their hideout in the Mojave desert and stop them from ripping open a door to limbo and releasing the demon gods."

"By then I had my anti-virus program all set to go out to all the computers in the world," said Virgil, "but there was no telling what kind of countermeasures the enemy had. Remember, Heatherson seemed to have eyes and ears everywhere. He knew that The Ramblers were coming back on Veterans Day, so it stood to reason that his minions were prepared to counter my counter virus."

"But we had something that Heatherson and his bloodthirsty maniacs didn't," said Jill, "we were ready."

"We flew out to the Mojave Desert," said Max, "the eight of us, armed with our weapons, our abilities and our new-found friendship. Of course, The Bureau had plenty of backup with us. Another sixty operatives, all armed with assult rifles, heavy machine guns, bazookas, and of course extra grenades."

"Warren and I were there as well," said Patricia, "as well as ten other Meta Human operatives, but Max and his group went in first."

"The cultists had their dark tabernacle set up on a large rock in the middle of the desert," said Leon, "by the time we got there it was less than an hour to go as midnight approached the International Date Line. That's right, we had less time than we thought, for the cultists planned to end the world as New Years Day first hit the world out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean."

"They planned all along to plunge the world into chaos one time zone after another," said Max, "and they were all ready to do it."

"You're probably wondering why we couldn't have tried to attack them from the air," said Leon.

"Why's that?" Ron asked, "if it were me, I would have swarmed them from above."

"That would have been the most logical choice of action," said Virgil, "overwealm them from the skies. But it wasn't an option."

"Aside from longevity," said Aaron, "the demons endowed Heatherson and his cabal with all sorts of unearthly abilities. One of which was to project an energy field that interfered with motorized transportation."

"That meant that we couldn't use helicopters or jeeps to get to them," said Max, "nothing with an engine could get within three miles of the bastards without shutting down, and being in a helicopter when it suddenly turns off isn't a good idea; believe me, I've been in a helicopter crash, it isn't something you ever want to experience."

"That's one factor that caused us to lose the first time," said Jill, "we had trained for a swift entry via helicopter, but the enemy's engine barrier forced us to go in on foot, and having dozens of people move about in the dark quietly is harder than you think."

"The cult had other dark powers on their side as well," said Virgil, "the demonic endowments had created Augments; humans with abilities similar to Meta Humans, but instead of being born with them, they're infused forcefully, and such a gain in power isn't a pretty site."

"Becoming an Augment carries the potential for serious, often fatal side effects," said Aaron, "especially if the endowment is demonic in nature. Those Augments in the Heatherson cult were for the most part hopelessly insane, answering only to their leader's voice as the only voice of reason.

"Other Augments are afflicted with physical deformations; some lose the use of an arm or their legs, others are blinded or struck deaf. Some have cancerous growths all over their bodies, while others suffer from animalistic mutations such as tails or clawed limbs or even extra limbs like tentacles or wings."

"As for the cultists that were endowed," said Jill, "they were just driven even more off their rockers than they were just as cultists. But the powers they had sure didn't make our jobs easy."

"Aside from projecting barriers that disrupted machines," said Andrew, "they also had anti-spying barriers. That's why we had to rely on our Trackers to find them; the bastards were undetectable by any other means. That meant no tapping phone conversations, no photographing from observation planes or satellites, not even if someone passing by could report them to the authorities."

"And we had no idea where the cultists had their computer systems set up," said Virgil, "if we did we could have ended their virus threat before it became a threat, but we had to have the Trackers find them as well."

"So there we were," said Max, "hurrying on foot through the desert towards thousands of armed and dangerous cultists, waiting to murder us while Heatherson and his cabal performed the ritual.

"They had several defensive rings set around their tabernacle; machinegun nests, landmines, booby traps in all shapes and sizes, and gun-toting cultists behind every rock and beneath the sands, ready to pop out and kill us."

"That's when we discovered another aspect of the gypsy blessing," said Leon, "as we attacked the cultists defenses, cautiously moving ahead, disarming the traps as we found them, blasting the machinegun nests with RPG's and grenades, and killing the cultists before they killed us, we found that our abilities seemed to resonate with each other."

"What does that mean?" Ginny asked.

"It meant that we could lend our powers to each other," said Max, "I could give Leon some of my strength and healing ability and he could give his speed to Katina. It was surprising at first, but we learned how to use this new power rather quickly."

"I wound up borrowing Kayle's lightning," said Jill, "and Calvin got Saul's phasing."

"I got Calvin's stretching," said Andrew, "it was weird being made of rubber."

"If you can use each others powers," said Harry, "why didn't you do that on Halloween?"

"It's not that simple," said Max, "we later found that we could only swap abilities when in dire situations, such as a mission to prevent the end of the world."

"And we were in just such a dire situation," said Jill, "so there we were using each others powers, which really confused the enemy. They had an uncomfortable amount of information about us and our powers, so they had planned how to counter and destroy us," she smiled, "you really had to be there to appreciate how humorous it was to see them baffled at the sight of us using different abilities."

"So you were able to fight and win," said Harry.

"Yes," said Max, "but the lower-level cultists and their guns were only the first of the defenses Heatherson had planned. The second ring consisted of several 'D' and 'C' class demons. That slowed us down somewhat as we had to stop and kill each demon as they attacked us."

"We were down to half an hour by the time we finished the demons," said Leon, "but then we began to running into some of the inner cabal of the cult."

"I forgot to tell that the cult had a hierarchy," said Andrew, "there were several levels, based on how much authority and experienced a member had.

"The lowest minions were just thugs and gunmen, Devoutionists. Then there were the Priests and Priestesses, then the High Priests and High Pristesses, those were the ones who could control demons. Then there were the Magus', those of the inner cabal that were with Heatherson from the beginning. These were Augmented people. And finally there was Heatherson himself, the Grand Magus."

"The Magus' we faced had abilities we hadn't seen before," said Jill, "some could shoot energy beams from their eyes, others could casts illusions that could make anyone trapped in them believe they were being attacked by their greatest fears, and they would die of that fear.

"We nearly gave into our fears at that moment," said Max, "but our bond protected us. Most of the Augmented cultists, while they had incredible dark powers, weren't immune to being shot in the head."

"Or decapitated," said Jill, "I took a few heads that day."

"And I blew up some of them," said Andrew, "but someof them were infused with a power that made them nearly as indestructible as Max."

"Those I had to take care of myself," said Max, "again, I nearly had my arms ripped off, but I ripped the one that attacked me in half. Those Augments we faced had to be burned; fire was the only way to stop them from regenerating."

"We finally got through the last of the defenses," said Leon, "and we entered the tabernacle. That was the worst part."

"That's where we ran into the most powerful of Heatherson's inner circle," said Max, "the ones who had direct access to the Necronomicon and could summon more powerful demons and had more insidious abilities."

"We're talking about B class demons," said Andrew, "those were the ones that took all of us working together, and nearly all of our grenades, to destroy. As for the cultists, again, we all had to work together to destroy them."

"But we destroyed them all," said Jill, "and with less than five minutes to spare. We ran towards the dark altar where Heatherson was waiting with his intended sacrificial victims and his Necronomicon."

"But it seemed that we were too late," said Max in a serious tone, "all around the altar were dozens of dead innocents with their hearts ripped out. The ritual called for twenty-one virgin hearts to open the door to limbo, and the door was almost open."

"Right above the unholy brazier where the hearts were being burned was a small rift in reality," said Jill in an equally serious tone, "a five foot wide hole in the world, and on the other side of that hole were the demon gods," she closed her eyes and shuddered, "just thinking about those things makes my skin crawl."

"You saw the demon gods?" Hermione whispered.

"And they saw us," said Leon, "I don't claim to be an expert on demon mentality, but I think the sight of us heroes standing there defiantly made the demons rather irked."

"They were more than a little irked," said Andrew, "they really wanted to kill us, eat us, rape us and wear us fashionably, not necessarily in that order, but you get the idea."

"But that sort of worked in our favor," said Max, "the demons were so riled up, they tried to force their way through the hole in reality and the demons were so big they actually jammed themselves up on their side of the hole."

"That's when I had another moment of brilliant clarity," said Andrew, "I had the last grenade we had brought with us, so I pulled the pin and threw the grenade into the hole. I didn't even think about whether or not the hole worked both ways, but it did. The grenade went into limbo and blasted the demon gods.

"Andrew's throw was just in time," said Virgil, "Heatherson was just about to make the last sacrifice, so that grenade blast distracted him at the critical moment. At the same time, our Trackers found where the cult was going to launch their virus, so I hacked into their systems and delivered my counter virus, neutralizing the Y2K threat once and for all."

"Back with us," said Max, "I rushed up to the distracted Heatherson and punched him right in the mouth, knocking out several of the bastards' teeth, while Jill and Katina saved the last victim, a young girl who loved animals.

"Just as this was going on, midnight struck at the International Date Line. Without the last sacrificed heart, the ritual failed and the hole began to close. The demons, wounded somewhat by Andrew's grenade, backed away from the hole, but one of them managed to squeeze through at the last second."

"A demon god made it into our world?" a shocked Ginny asked.

"Just one," said Jill, "and such a small thing he was; the bugger was barely four feet tall and had only three eyes and four arms. The other demons were much bigger and uglier."

"This single demon god, while the smallest of its kind," said Leon, "was certainly no slouch. It nearly killed me, it was so fast."

"But Katina managed to knock it down with a psychic blast," said Jill, "while Kayle electrocuted it and I sliced off one of its arms. That only made the bugger mad, but also afraid, so it ran for its tiny little life. We tried to stop it, but it was too fast and before anyone could do anything, it was halfway across the desert and out of sight."

"You mean to say that there's a bloody demon god loose somewhere in the bloody world!" an appalled Ron asked.

"There was," said Andrew, "not any more, we took care of that lose end last Spring Break, but that's a story for later."

"We had other things to worry about," said Max, "more immediate matters."

"Heatherson," said Harry.

"No way were we going to let the bastard get away again," said Leon, "this time it was all or nothing, and boy was it all or nothing."

"Being the one who actually owned that copy of The Necronomicon," said Aaron, "Heatherson had access to the most powerful rites and incantations. He had the strongest demonically endowed abilities, and they were almost more than Max and the others could handle."

"Heatherson could command the elements," said Jill, "or rather, dark perversions of them; cold fire, hot ice, water that could electrocute and exploding dirt."

"The fire and ice I could handle," said Max, "and the shocking water. The exploding dirt, that wasn't something I was prepared for," he suddenly laughed, "that's when I did a tribute to that scene of The Wizard of Oz, where the flying monkeys take Dorothy and leave the Scarcrow in pieces. I was all, 'My arm is over there! And my leg is over there!'"

"And then I said 'that's you all over,'" said Leon.

"You actually lost your limbs?" a shocked Harry asked.

"Only for a few minutes," said Max, "the others attached them back onto me and I healed up within minutes. I probably wouldn't have lasted that long with Heatherson still attacking everyone, but Andrew stopped him for a bit."

"I countered with my mini bombs," said Andrew, "getting a fistful of little pieces of C4 in his face was enough to distract Heatherson. We all then used up the last of our ammonution shooting the son of a bitch. I had a full magazine for my .475 and I emptied it at Heatherson, yet even after getting shot nearly almost a hundred times, he was still standing."

"He then summoned an A class demon," said Leon, "and with us out of ammo and Max still healing, that would have been the end of us. But then Saul redeemed himself of all past transgressions by running up to the demon and phasing inside it."

"Bloody hell!" said an astonished and shocked Ron.

"He could actually phase inside a living creature?" Hermione asked.

"That's right," said Jill, "and it was a real bloody mess alright. He was inside the damned thing with nothing but the air in his lungs and a combat knife, but that's what he planned on."

"We forgot to meantion that Saul's biggest talent outside of The Bureau was swimming," said Max, "only Pattricia could hold her breath longer than Saul could."

"He didn't come that close to me," said Patricia, "we had a contest once. I beat my record; 2 hours, 17 minutes and 43 seconds, while Saul could only keep it in for 59 minutes and 11 seconds."

"But that was way more than enough time for Saul to stab the demon in its black heart," said Leon, "the rest of us helped cut him out of the creature after it died. By then Max was back on his feet and we were ready to finish Heatherson off once and for all."

"Yet Heatherson had yet to unleash his most diabolical weapon," said Jill, "himself. He used a spell from the Necronomicon that completely transformed him into a living nightmare; a chimerical mix of all sorts of vicious animals and creatures I don't even what to know what they were."

"Once again we all had to fight together in order to defeat this one opponent," said Max, "but we couldn't defeat it. It was all we could do to stay alive as this thing that was Heatherson kept striking us down. We kept getting back up and striking back, but it only struck us back harder.

"But we had one last card to play, one last move that would decide whether or not the world would be safe from this mad man who consorted with demons. Katina acted as a focusing point were we channeled all our mental and physical energies into one massive attack that we shot at Heatherson. All that raw power hitting the bastard was enough to destroy him once and for all."

"How'd you do that?" Harry asked, "focus all your ablities into one attack?"

"Again, it was the gypsy blessing," said Jill, "another super power that we can use only when in dire need."

"Believe me," said Andrew as he checked his watch, "if we could use all of these really cool super powers, we would have rid the world of all evil by now."

"But as the old adage goes," said Jill, "'with great power comes great responsibility.' And it's a good thing we have limits on these powers. If we didn't, we'd probably go mad with power and set ourselves as gods or something."

"And having one demon god running lose was bad enough," said Max, "but we'll get to that later. So there we were, with the year 2000 slowly but safely unfolding on the world."

"A few small computer systems were still affected by the Y2K bug," said Virgil, "but there wasn't any chaos in the world caused by the problem; no system crashes, no airplanes dropping out of the sky, no bank and market trading systems deleting billions of dollars in the blink of an eye, no, all was well with the world, more or less."

"And even though we arrived too late to stop Heatherson from butchering twenty people," said Jill, "we managed to save the last intended victim."

"This girl had had her whole family murdered by the cultists," said Travis, "they had a completely random way of choosing their victims; they'd just pick out a person from a crowd, or they'd choose someone in a family they'd been watching. They'd either grab the person out of the crowd, or they'd break into the house and murder all those who they didn't want and take the one they did want."

"This girl was one who lost her whole family," said Jill, "all because of the mad desires of demon worshipers. She was only 14 at the time and had no other family. She was very taken with us and didn't want to go with Child Services. So, after begging the higher-ups for a favor, they relented and The Bureau took her in. In short, we adopted an orphan who turned out to be a Meta Human with untapped stealth abilities, and could also talk to animals."

"Gillian," said Harry.

"Exactly," said a female voice at the other end of the room. There sitting in a previously unoccupied chair was a girl, about 17, with curly black hair, light blue eyes and wearing a denim jacket with blue jeans and smiling widely.

"How'd you do that?" a startled Ron asked, "get in here without anyone seeing you?"

"She's had ninja training," said Ginny, "even wizards know about ninjas."

When Harry first met Gillian Anderson during the Halloween crisis, she gave off the impression of a very shy girl with a speech impediment. But now that Harry saw the young Meta Human, he realized that she had definitely changed somewhat; definitely more confident in herself and more outgoing.

"So they saved you from the cultists," said Hermione, "and have been with The Ramblers ever since."

At that Gillian nodded.

Just then a man in his early 20's with short brown hair, green eyes and wearing a green and orange jacket with blue pants, walked in. This was Jeff Dambrisi. His ability allowed him to absorb energy and send it back to its source.

"Did I miss everything?" Jeff asked as he sat down, "how far into the story are you?"

"We're just past the part were we destroyed the Heaterson cult once and for all," said Jill, "and adopted Gillian."

"Well at least I'm here for the best part," said Jeff eagerly, "the part where the demon god gets killed."

"You only like that story because you got to kill the demon god," said an irate Andrew, "and you only got to do it because there was a vacant spot in the team." he stood up, "I have to go baste the turkey," he then went into the kitchen.

"He's right," said Jill in a reluctant tone as her fingers tapped her palm, "our saving the world from the Heatherson cult was our finest hour. After that, things began to slowly go downhill for us."

"Why?" Harry asked, yet he already knew the answer.

"Kaylee, Calvin and Saul," said Max, "they died in action."

"Calvin was the first to buy the farm," said Leon, "on April 16th of 2000, on our third mission as a team. The second mission involved putting down a ghoul infestation. And when I mean ghouls, I mean zombies."

"Every hear of the movie Night of the Living Dead?" Daniel asked. At that Harry and Hermione nodded.

"I saw it," said Rebecca, "it's okay, for a Muggle production, but not really something I want to see again."

"Zombie movies aren't for everyone," said Jeff, "well, it's based on a true event. Zombies have been around almost as long as humans. The movies got the part right about where if you're bitten, you become a zombie. Most modern zombie stories about a virus being the cause is more true than the world things."

"Solanum," said Aaron, "a simple organism capable of great evil. All the movies, books and other forms of fiction were also right about shooting the ghouls in the head, it's the only sure way to put down one of the walking dead."

"We faced a 'Class 2' outbreak," said Max, "a Class 1 outbreak has less than 20, while a Class 2 is between 20 and a hundred ghouls, and we destroyed them all in an hour, that's how well we were working together at that time. We shot them all, stacked the bodies, while all wearing hazardous material suits, and burned them all."

"That's one thing that fictional zombies are wrong about," said Jill, "zombies aren't afraid of fire and they're not flammable, unless first doused with flammable liquids first. Acid could also destroy them, but burning is the best way to destroy the virus."

"We got through that mission," said Leon, "then had some time off. But then the demon god that got away turned up in Madagascar. We tracked it down, but it got away again."

"We followed the bugger to Africa and then up to the Sahara desert," said Jill, "and right on the border between Libya and Egypt, we caught up with it, and then…Calvin…" at that she faltered and looked away so Harry and the others barely saw the tears falling from her eyes.

"Calvin may have been made of rubber," said Max in a grave tone, "but even rubber has a breaking point. That demon ripped Calvin apart, and then ran away."

"That's where I came in," said Jeff, "I joined The Bureau in 1997. I mostly had small missions, they really didn't appreciate my ability until I was struck by lightning, then channeled that lightning at a brick wall, destroying it."

"Jeff joined the team and we tracked the demon god down again," said Leon, "this time in the Canadian Rockies. We found the little bastard and it tried to kill us once again."

"But this time we were ready," said Jill in a serious tone as she wiped her eyes, "we had a trap set for the demon and it fell for it, hook, line and sinker."

"It tried to get out of the trap with a dark energy blast," said Jeff, "It took the blast and used it to blast its head off, so no more demon."

"Things were pretty quite for a while after that," said Max, "mostly we had to face individual demons that fell into our world through small, unstable portals, as well as the occasional zombie outbreak."

"But sometimes we'd get a much bigger mission," said Leon, "big enough to threaten the whole world. This one time last year in Latin America we nearly lost to a Class 3 zombie outbreak."

"That was an infestation over 100," said Max, "which can go as high as several thousands. A Class 3 can quickly overrun an entire city in a matter of hours if allowed to get out of hand. We were lucky that the infestation took place in the jungles of Costa Rica."

"I thought it was in Panama," said Travis.

"It was Colombia," said Patricia.

"Panama," Travis insisted.

"Colombia," Patricia insisted.

"It was Costa Rica," said Andrew, "we were there, it was definitely Costa Rica. We only faced about 700, and the infestation was far enough from a major city to avoid even more infestations, but that was more than enough to rip poor Saul apart. He was joking around as usual, and he was one second too slow to avoid getting eaten alive.

"We also lost Kayle in that mission. She got bitten by a ghoul, and knowing that she was doomed to becoming a zombie herself, she took her own life rather than forcing one of us to destroy her."

"I don't think I could have done it," said Jill in a grave tone, "seeing a friend and comrade coming back as one of those ghouls, I don't know if I had it in me to put her out of her misery before she infected one of us."

"Gillian and I joined the team soon after," said Daniel, "she and the teams' super spy, and I as the new technology expert."

"That does leave one thing," said Ginny, "we all know where the other Ramblers came from, but what about you, Daniel? What's your story?"

At that Jeff, Jill and Andrew both laughed a bit, "ask him again," said Jeff, "ask Daniel where he came from."

"Ask him! Ask Him!" said a very eager Gillain, who was bounding in her seat.

"Okay," said an unsure Ginny, "Daniel, where do you come from?"

"I don't know," said a smiling Daniel.

"Should have known you'd mess with us eventually," said an irate Ron.

"I'm serious," said Daniel, "I have no idea where my hometown is, or who my family is, or even if I have a family. I'm not even sure if my name really is Daniel Pulaski."

"Amnesia," said Hermione, "a traumatic event in your past?"

"Maybe he got hit on the head at some point," said Harry.

"Or maybe he got hit with a memory charm," said Ron.

"Anything's possible with my messed-up head," said Daniel, "all I know is that I have no memories before August 11th, 2000. The a Bureau Tracker on vacation found me in Yellowstone National Park. I was unconscious in the woods, completely naked by the way, with no physical signs of how I got there or if anyone was with me. I woke up in a nearby visitors center with several Bureau operatives asking me questions I didn't know the answers to.

"It didn't take long for my ability to assert itself. The second I touched a computer I was using it to surf the internet for any leads to my identity, yet I only touched the computer without actually using it. The Bureau was impressed with that power and they took me in, adopted me, like Gillian. I picked out my name because it sounded familiar somewhat, and ever sense I've been trying to figure out who I really am."

"well I hope you find your answers," said Harry. He truly felt sympathetic to Daniel, and to the other Ramblers. These were people who went through tribulations, if not greater, than equal to the ones he went through before he discovered his wizard heritage and his years at Hogwarts.

These were people who suffered nearly unimaginable terrors and agonies, yet somehow pulled through to overcome insurmountable odds and triumph over the forces of darkness, not unlike Harry's struggles against Voldemort.

"I guess that's about it," said Max, "we had several minor missions, plus nine more that would have resulted in the end of the world, since the team got started, and then on Halloween we met you wizards. The rest is history."

"Now that is a story," said Harry.

"You ought to write it down," said Hermione, "I'm sure there are others who would love to hear it."

"I'll bet there are," said Jill, "we've often thought about starting a joint memoir, but there hasn't been any time for writing. What we told you, that was an abridged version, there was a lot more that happened."

"But you'd be bored with the details," said Andrew as he looked at his watch.


	7. Chapter 7: Giving Thanks

**Chapter 7: Giving Thanks**

"Well, you've certainly told us a lot," said Harry, "enough to get the general idea."

"Of what?" Ron asked.

"That there's more to a person than who they are on the outside," said Ginny, "That the full measure of a man, or woman, is composed of their experiences and their capabilities."

"Truer words couldn't be spoke," said Patricia. "You could study a person's actions from the moment you meet them, but you're only getting half the story."

"The world is full of different people," said Max, "with different ideals and beliefs. Those beliefs help define who we are inside and out, what makes us different, unique, and it's those differences that make us strong in different ways, depending on the person."

"You got that right," said Leon.

Harry completely agreed with Max. After all that Harry had been through, if there was one thing that he learned, it was our actions and experiences that truly tell who we are.

Just then Patricia's cell phone ringed, indicating a text message, "It's from Warren, and he's not coming."

"He's not?" Travis asked.

"Why?" Andrew asked, "I made my sausage, succotash and pasta liked he asked."

"He says he's sorry he can't come," said Patricia as she read the message, "but he's…going to dinner with someone else tonight," at that Patricia smiled, "someone of the female persuasion."

"Warren's got a girlfriend?" Gillian asked eagerly.

"Who would have thought it," said Leon, "the Oklahoma Oni, our Warren, with a girlfriend."

"And I thought The Bureau was his one true love," said Jill.

"I'm guessing Warren has his own story," said Harry.

"Yeah," said Max, "but even if we tell an abridged version, it'll take way too long."

"I guess we'll have to wait for that one," said Hermione.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in idle talk while Andrew finished preparing for dinner, running back and forth to the kitchen every few minutes to check on his creations.

Finally the appointed hour came and everyone was shown to the dining room. There was a long, wide table with seats and places for everyone, and Andrew bade his guests to sit down.

"First thing's first," said Andrew, "If I could have two volunteers to help me wheel in the feast."

"I'll do it!" said Daniel eagerly, while Gillian nearly jumped out her seat.

The three of them went back to the kitchen and a minute later began wheeling in carts full of all that Andrew had labored so hard on that day. First was the large salad with his homemade dressing. Then there was the candied yams with a marshmallow toping. Then there was string beans with cream of mushroom soup, followed by Broccoli Yum-Yum, which was broccoli with crushed cheese crackers on top.

There was fresh cranberry sauce and cornbread rolls, and finally the four entrées; a huge turkey with cornbread stuffing, the turducken that Patricia and Travis brought, a large bowl full of ground beef and tomatoes sauce over pasta and four kinds of cheese, and another large bowl full of shell pasta with kielbasa and succotash.

"You've outdone yourself again, Andrew!" said Patricia eagerly as Andrew, Daniel and Gillian began placing the dishes on the table.

"You've exceeded all expectations," said Leon, "magnificent!"

"Just the honest results of honest efforts," said Andrew. He, Gillian and Daniel finished loading the table with the dishes. They then sat down.

"Everybody please bow your heads," said Andrew, "I'll say grace."

Harry and the others bowed their heads and listened to Andrew's words, "almighty God, creator of all that is, we give thanks to you for this bounty before us, for allowing us to be here on this day of celebration and contemplation, and we give thanks for the gifts you've given us, for the powers abilities we were blessed with to use to keep our world safe from the forces of darkness, and that we may continue to use those powers in the future, and we give thanks in the name of those who could not be with us tonight, that those no longer in this world may rest in peace, and that those who's recovery we pray for may recover swiftly. And mostly, we give thanks for the most precious gift of all, the gift of life. Amen."

"Amen," said everyone.

"Just one more thing before we can ruin this feast with our hunger," said Andrew as everyone raised their heads, "During my time in Japan I did my best to learn the language, but part of my mindset prevents me from learning foreign languages easily. I only learned a few words and phrases, but one phrase is one I'll never forget, the Japanese version of _bon appétit_," Andrew then clapped his hands together, "_Itadakimasu_!"

At that everyone laughed and followed suit, clapping their hands together and saying "_Itadakimasu_!" then they finally started the feast.

"I love this broccoli yun-yum," said John.

"And these candied yams," said Rebecca, "with the marshmallow topping, it's to die for!"

"Who'd have thought of mixing string beans with cream of mushroom soup," said Ron, "we've got to tell mum about this."

"And the fried onion bits," said Ginny, "genius."

"These cornbread rolls are indescribably good," said Hermione.

"And the turkey is just as indescribable," said Harry, "it's all good. I think Andrew could definitely give the house elves at Hogwarts a run for their money."

"I'll take your word for it," said John, "now the feasts they had at Ravenloft, now that was good eating."

"That reminds me of something I wanted to asked," said Hermione, "I did some research, and I found out that Ravenloft Polytechnic was founded by a descendent of Rowena Ravenclaw."

"That's right," said Rebecca, "but what do you want to know?"

"I'm just curious about your curriculum," said Hermione, "if it's any different from Hogwarts."

"We have mostly the same classes they have overseas," said John, "Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Charms, and the usual extracurricular classes; Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Arthmacy, Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies. I hated Potions with a vengence."

"You're not alone, mate," said Ron.

After everyone had their full of the main courses, Andrew asked for volunteers to clear the table.

"I got this," said Rebecca as she stood up and pulled out her wand, "since we're all friends here, it's okay that I use magic for the cleanup." She then used a spell that caused all the dirty dishes to hover and float into the kitchen, where another spell from Rebecca caused them to be rinsed in the skink and loaded into the dishwasher.

Rebecca then used a spell to take all the uneaten food out of their serving dishes and into leftover containers, while the serving dishes were also rinsed and loaded into the dishwasher.

"That is one big dishwasher you have," said Rebecca as she finished with the cleanup.

"I had it specially made for me," said Andrew, "when I cook for a holliday, I cook big. Now this time I'm going to want real vountieres. Magic is okay for cleaning up, but when brining food to the table, it just needs the human touch, at least in my house."

"I'll do it!" said Jill as she and Leon stood up, "you may be a pain in the ass sometimes, Andrew, but you bake the best damn pecan pie I've ever had, and that makes up for a lot."

"And you may also be a pain in the ass sometimes, Jill," said Andrew, "but you like what I cook, and that makes up for a lot." With that he, Jill and Leon went into the kitchen.

"Did you see?" Patricia asked, "none of them were tapping their fingers. They weren't stressed out."

"There maybe hope for them yet," said Travis.

"Why are you so hung up about Andrew and Jill being a couple?" Rebecca asked, "I know they like each other in their hearts, but what's the big deal?"

"That's another story that'll have to wait," said Max.

"You're kidding, right?" Ron asked.

"One story per holiday is enough," said Patricia.

Andrew, Jill and Leon then came back in cart carrying several varieties of pie; pumpkin pie, apple pie, cherry pie, blueberry pie, peach pie and pecan pie, which Andrew considered his true masterpiece. There was also a large chocolate and cherry cheesecake.

"And because you asked for it, Harry," said Andrew as he, Leon and Jill set the table with the desert dishes, "I made treacle fudge."

"Brilliant!" said Harry.

A short time later everyone had finished desert and was fully satisfied. Again, Rebecca used magic to clean up.

"Alright," said Andrew, "another successful Thanksgiving dinner. Now comes the best part; saying what we're all thankful for. I'm thankful for being alive and able to do my job and use my talents in constructive ways."

"You've been saying that for years, man," said Leon, "find something else to be thankful for. As for me, I'm thankful to be blessed with the power to fight evil."

"Same with me," said Max, "and I'm thankful to have met such great people whom have become my friends and comrades."

"Same here," said Jill, "and I'm thankful for my abilities, to have made new friends this year."

"Same with us," said Daniel, Jeff, Gillian, Virgil, Aaron, Travis and Patricia.

"Well I'm thankful for the chance to use all my powers," said Rebecca, "both magical and Meta Human, to bring out my full potential. And for being partnered with John."

"And I'm grateful to have Rebecca as a partner," said John.

"I'm grateful for just about everything," said Harry, "being alive, being a wizard, having friends and family, and most of all," he looked at Ginny and smiled, "being with the one person I want to spend the my life with."

"Likewise," said Ginny. She and Harry then kissed.

"I think that sums it up for all of us," said Hermione.

"No doubt," said Ron.

They all spent the next hour talking about this and that. Eventually it got late enough that one by one, The Ramblers and other guests left to go home. As his teammates left, Andrew gave some of the leftovers from dinner.

"I always make way too much," said Andrew as he gave two plastic containers, one with some brocolli yum-yum, the other with some turkey, to Leon, then a container of string bean casserole and one with cornbread stuffing to Jill, "leftovers are the best part of Thanksgiving after all."

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were given several containers that had a little of everything from dinner, while Harry was given an extra container of treacle fudge.

The four of them, along with Rebecca, John, Patricia and Travis, were the last to leave.

"You sure you're alright alone in this big house?" Hermione asked.

"It's my home," said Andrew, "of course I'm alright. An in the unlikely event I get lonely, the others are just a phone call away. I'm fine."

"I'm sure you are," said Harry, "thanks for having us over for supper."

"Thanks for coming," said Andrew, "and if you think this was a party, wait until New Years, now that will be a shindig you won't forget." Everyone said theig oodbyes and they left the house.

"We always have a New Years party at the Bureau," said Travis as He, Patricia, John, Rebecca, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny walked to the driveway where Patricia and Travis' car waited, "but Andrew is in charge of the planning. He's really got a knack for party planning."

"Makes you wonder what other talents that guy has," said John, "and the other Ramblers."

"We can only wait and see what tomorrow brings," said Rebecca. She and Travis then said goodnite to Harry and the others, then disaparated out.

"I'll never get used to that," said Patricia, "wizards teleporting, not as long as I live, and I hope to live for a long time."

"We may just do that," said Harry, "with Max and the other Ramblers keeping watch over the world."

At that both Travis and Patricia looked like they were holding back an important, yet uncomfortable secret.

"What is it?" Ginny asked, "What's wrong?"

"Max and the others aren't perfect," said Travis, "you know that. But there's two things that they didn't tell you that you need to know."

"Now what?" Ron asked.

"First of all," said Patricia, "there was one more aspect to the gypsy blessing. When the original eight were blessed, they each had a vision of the method of their demises. They know exactly how they're going to die, but not when and where, only how."

"Goodness," said a shocked Hermione.

"It's like seeing The Grim," said Ron, "only worse."

"I've read about your Diviniaton," said Travis, "The Grim only foretells a death, not whose death exactly. With Max and the others, each day they wake up, they know that that day could be the one that they die. Saul, Kayle and Calvin saw their deaths and they came about exactly as their visions said they would."

"They told you about what they say?" Harry asked.

"Yes," said Patricia, "and they asked us not to tell anyone else in The Bureau, otherwise the higher-ups would try to exploit them even more. Don't ask us to tell you what Max and the others saw; we're violating their confidence enough by telling you."

"We're telling you because we trust you to keep it quiet," said Travis, "and that we're confident that your help in the future could change it. The world needs people like Max, Jill, Andrew and Leon, especially Jill and Andrew."

"It'll take too long to explain fully," said Patricia, "but the reason why we want Jill and Andrew together is because out of all the Meta Humans working with The Bureau, those two have the best chance of actually having children. Even if the rate of Meta Humans coming into their powers increases, we're still a minority, and eventually an endangered minority, at the rate of crisis's that keep coming."

"Besides," said Travis, "they're soul mates, they just don't know it yet."

"Is that the other thing you wanted to tell us?" Harry asked.

"That was part of the first part," said Patricia, "the other part is this; the original eight was supposed to be nine."

"There were nine Ramblers?" Ginny asked.

"There was supposed to be nine," said Travis, "but the candidate for the ninth Rambler turned out to be a genuine psychopath. He murdered seven Bureau human operatives and two Meta Humans before we found him out. He had planned to murder Max and the others and let the world end, but we caught him before it was too late."

"We tried to make him forget He even was a Meta Human," said Patricia, "but this lunatic managed to get away. We searched for him for months, but he completely fell off the grid. But before he vanished, he swore one day to return and destroy The Ramblers. His name was Joseph Rombie, and like Max, he possessed an advanced healing factor, but he also had a psychic ability, teleportation. He could go anywhere in the world in a blink of an eye, and there wasn't anyting we could do to stop him from escaping."

"The Bureau has recently upgraded its defenses against Joseph," said Travis, "he can't teleport in, not like you wizards can, but he's still a lose cannon that's even crazier than Shannon, and Shannon was another genuine psychopath."

"Why are you telling us this?" Harry asked.

"It was Joseph who arranged the crisis's that got Kayle, Calvin and Saul killed," said Patricia, "and if he's not stopped, he'll kill Max and the others. Travis and I believe that magic is the only thing that could counter Joseph's madness. We hope that you, Harry Potter, and your friends and family, can save Max and the other Ramblers from the evil that is Joseph Rombie."

At that Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were stunned at this abrupt request. But then Harry and the others remembered that if there was one thing they're good at, it's accomplishing the impossible.

"We'll do what we can," said Harry, "I don't know what we can do to help, but we'll try," at that Ron, Hermione and Ginny nodded.

"That's all we can ask of you," said Patricia, "and thank you."

"If there's anything we can do to make things easier for you," said Travis, "just ask."

"We'll let you know as soon as we can thing of anything," said Hermione.

They then said their goodnights, then Travis and Patricia got into their car and drove off.

"Well," said Ron as Hermione used the Portkey charm on the same old boot they used to get here, "we're in another fine, bloody mess."

"And we're facing another lunatic," said Hermione as they all gathered around the boot and touched it. Two seconds later they were jerked back to London, now in the early hours of the next day.

"I'm starting to think I'll never get away from trouble," said Harry as they picked themselves up and gathered the fortunately un-spilled containers of leftovers, "that I'm doomed to be thrown into one death-defying adventure after another."

"At least you're not running off alone to do it," said Ginny, "oh, wait, that's Ron's part."

"I came back," said Ron, "I helped destroy Slytherin's locket."

"We all know what a big hero you are," said Hermione, "but I think we have bigger issues at hand."

"Like what?" Harry asked.

"First of all," said Hermione, "making out or Christmas shopping lists. It is the day after Thanksgiving afterall, Black Friday, they call it in America, one of the biggest shopping days in the world."

"That's right," said Ginny as she smiled, "but what else do we have to worry about now?"

"How to convince your mother to try Andrew's cooking," said Hermione as she help up a container holding some broccoli yum-yum. At that they all laughed and went home.

**The end.**

And that's it for my Harry Potter Thanksgiving special. I hoped you all liked it, and I hoped you'll love my next fic when it comes, so stay tuned!


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